Officials in Sweden have authorized licensed hunters to kill a total of 201 lynx throughout March, marking a significant increase from previous years. The decision comes just weeks after dozens of wolves were culled in what has been described as the country’s largest wolf hunt in modern history.
Conservationists and activists argue that the planned cull is disproportionate to the threat posed by the animals to both livestock and people. They are now calling on the European Union (EU) to take action against Sweden for allegedly violating environmental law.
“This is a trophy hunt, just like going to Africa to hunt lions,” said Magnus Orrebrant, the head of Svenska Rovdjursföreningen, an animal rights advocacy group that has started a Change.org petition calling for the trophy hunting of lynx to be stopped. “Hundreds of foreign hunters come to Sweden for lynx hunting because they think it is exciting.”
Conservationists have issued a warning that the lynx population in Europe could collapse if immediate efforts are not made to protect the animals. Recent tests on lynx in France have revealed that the animals’ genetic diversity is so low that they will likely become locally extinct within the next three decades if no action is taken.
There are an estimated 1,450 lynx in Sweden’s wildlife population, close to 300 fewer than a decade ago. The Swedish environmental protection agency, Naturvårdsverket, claims that only 870 of them are needed for a healthy population.
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Activists have been critical of Sweden’s recent decision, arguing that it is unnecessary and could have significant consequences for the ecosystem. The Swedish hunters’ association, Svenska Jägareförbundet, has admitted that the lynx does not pose a danger to humans.
“The hunt is absolutely not linked to any danger to humans,” said Henrik Falk, an adviser to the association, in a statement to The Guardian. “Neither is wolf hunting – there are no documented cases of wolves attacking humans in Swedish modern times.”
Falk says, for the hunter, the cull is less about population control and more about the thrill.
“The lynx hunt is more about the excitement, and for some hunters, of course, the skin is the motivation,” Falk said.
In Sweden, lynxes, like most other game animals, are hunted using dogs. According to the EU Habitats Directive, hunting may be allowed either to prevent damage to livestock or in the interests of public safety. However, predator expert Benny Gäfwert from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has raised concerns that neither of these conditions applies to lynx in Sweden.
According to Gäfwert, it is “strongly questionable” that either of these conditions applies to lynx in Sweden.
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“We do not think the hunters can invoke these exceptions, and we have notified the EU Commission,” Gäfwert said. “That hunting occurs, we do not, in itself, have a problem with, but the extent to which it occurs in relation to the low damage caused by the lynx is unwarranted.”
Lynx have historically lived across Eurasia but have recently been put at risk in many countries from habitat loss, inbreeding, poaching and traffic collisions. British environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, denied calls to reintroduce the lynx in the UK last month.
Conservationists champion the lynx as a controlling factor in Sweden’s large population of deer, moose and boar.
Sweden’s lynx hunt is taking place during the mating season when their fur is thickest, which makes it particularly attractive to hunters, said Marie Stegard Lind of the anti-hunting group Jaktkritikerna.
“This is completely unnecessary – a pure trophy hunt,” she said.