As a nature-loving mountain biker, it pains me to hear that I and my sports friends are making life difficult for wild animals, even endangering their survival. We disturb them in their habitat, so they need more energy and have fewer young. So far, so well known.

I have encountered many deer, a few chamois and even a few ibex in the forest and in the mountains, both on foot and on my bike. They always took off if they weren't already far enough away. I have never directly hit a wild animal and I have never heard of a mountain biker injuring a deer or even a rarer cloven-hoofed animal in this way. It is quite possible that this has happened before, but it is certainly not a regularly recurring event.

And now this: Corona has caused the dog population to grow so much that even the gamekeepers are noticing. This is reported by the Regionaljournal Zürich-Schaffhausen from SRF. In the last five years, the number of dogs in the canton of Zurich has risen from 56,000 to 66,000. In the report, a Zurich gamekeeper states that dogs are increasingly tearing up deer. The website of Wildhut Zürich even provides figures: 9 deer were killed by dogs in the 2018-2019 census period. The following year there were 11 deer. According to these statistics, 27 deer were also killed in road traffic accidents in the last two years recorded.

The federal government also records these figures: According to its census, 399 deer were mauled to death by dogs in 2020. The fact that the number of deer killed by dogs throughout Switzerland has not increased at all since 2000, but has actually fallen, is a story in itself. Perhaps it is only Zurich dog owners who do not have their animals under control. What is interesting from the perspective of a guilty mountain biker is the sheer number. On average, dogs were responsible for the deaths of 615 deer per year.

And that's not all: on average, over 8000 deer lose their lives every year following a collision with a car. The number of those who fall in front of a train is on a par with the number of dogs killed. Well over 1000 deer fall victim to agricultural machinery every year.

Of course, these are just numbers. These statistics do not include the deer that live less long or have fewer young due to disturbance by mountain bikers. Nor should this be taken as a reason not to show consideration for game in the forest. But the figures do show one thing: we mountain bikers are not the greatest threat to the lives of wild animals.