Wild animals Wolf killed in Uri was responsible for goat kills in Realp

The wolf killed at the end of June in Realp by the Uri Wildlife Service is the animal that had killed at least 16 goats days earlier. This was the result of a genetic analysis of the killed wolf and of traces on a goat that had been killed on the Schweig Alp.

The wolf was the first male wolf to be found in Switzerland, as reported by the Uri Security Directorate on Friday. It referred to an investigation by the Laboratoire de Biologie de la Conservation (LBC) at the University of Lausanne. The animal, named M451, was one to two years old and came from the Italian peninsula.

The Uri government released the wolf for shooting after 16 domestic goats were killed on the Schweig alp in the Witenwasserntal valley and 10 other animals went missing.

The Ursern Valley is considered to be an area where wolves have killed several animals in the past. Most recently, two wolves were released for shooting in the canton of Uri in 2022. Both animals could not be shot within the specified period and escaped from the authorities.

Another wolf comes from Valais

The authorities used DNA analyses to identify another wolf that had been spotted in Realp on Alp Switzerland immediately after M451 was shot. It is said to have killed seven sheep in the Alp Deieren area at the end of June. The animal, known as M422, comes from the Nendaz-Siviez pack in Valais and was born in 2023.

The federal legal requirements for further wolf culls in the canton of Uri have not yet been met, according to the Department of Justice. However, every incident in which livestock is killed is examined on a case-by-case basis with regard to a possible shooting order.

SDA