Hunter ninety-nine per cent sure he spotted a wolf

There a have been various reports in recent years of wolves being spotted in the canton, but now one has been spotted within the confines of the city, or so it is thought.

The sighting actually took place three and a half weeks ago by Samuel Bussmann, who was out walking with his dog, Blue, in the Juchenegg area of the city.

Bussmann recalled how he had started off from his home in the Schönegg area and gone up the Zugerberg by the Blasenberg. “Every Saturday I take Blue, my ten-month-old Slovakian Hound, on a longer walk,” said Bussmann, who has qualifications in hunting.

“It was on the sledging route in the area below the top station of the funicular railway that Blue pulled on the lead indicating he wanted to head upwards. “And then I noticed this animal not far off,” Bussmann recalled. “That is not a dog,” he thought to himself, whereupon he got out his smart phone and started filming, or so he thought. Unfortunately, because it was cold and he had not been wearing gloves, filming was not activated.

He decided to approach the animal. “It looked like a worn-out dog, but I am 99 per cent it was a wolf.” he said, “And Blue also fixed his eyes on it. He recognised it was not a dog, too. Then I climbed over the barbed wire and tried to film again. The wolf only appears in it for a short while as Blue was pulling at the lead. The wolf then just slinked off. The whole thing was a wonderful uplifting experience,” he enthused. He subsequently went on to take photographs of what he thought might be the wolf’s footprints, but there were so many others in the snow up there, too.

After the sighting, Bussmann contacted gamekeeper Andreas Zehnder. “It could well be what he spotted was a wolf,” he said, “perhaps one belonging to the Calanda pack from the canton of Graubünden, one of which has been spotted on the canton of Zug before. However, the photographic evidence in this case is not conclusive,” he continued, adding that there had been no reports of livestock having been killed. “Wolves mostly kill deer, the number of which has been on the increase here in recent years,” he said.

What should one do if one encounters a wolf?
“If out with a dog, make sure it is on a lead and just enjoy it. Seeing one is not a common experience.”