The back story
Wild Zurich: Swans, Beavers and the Sihlwald
Swans along the lake promenades, beavers back on the Sihl and the Limmat, and a wilderness forest a train ride from the station: the wild side of Zurich.
The natural side of Zurich, from the swans and water birds of the lake and the beavers that have returned to the Sihl and the Limmat to the Sihlwald, a forest left to grow wild, and the Uetliberg, with a directory of the parks in our guide.
Zurich is a city of banks and galleries on the shore of a clear lake, with forest on the hills on either side. Swans glide past the promenades of the Seefeld and the Enge, beavers have come back to its rivers, and up the valley of the Sihl lies a forest that has been left to grow wild.
This is a short, honest guide to Zurich's natural side: the lake, the rivers and the forests within easy reach by tram, train and boat. Bring good shoes and go early in the day.
Half an hour from the banks of Zurich, a forest has been left to grow wild.
The lake and the rivers
Lake Zurich is the city's great open space. Mute swans and other water birds gather along the promenades from the Bürkliplatz to the Zürichhorn and at the mouth of the Limmat, and the lake boats of the ZSG give the best view of the shores. The Limmat and the Sihl, the two rivers that meet behind the main station, are the ones to watch for beavers: the canton's monitoring has found new beaver territories along both.
The Sihlwald and the Uetliberg
South of the city, along the Sihl, the Sihlwald is one of Switzerland's 20 parks of national importance and carries the federal label of a Nature Discovery Park: a natural forest reserve where fallen trees are left to lie, carpeted with wild garlic in spring. Its paths, fire pits and forest adventure trail are open at all times. Above the city, the Uetliberg rises to 871 metres, with trails through the woods and views of the lake and the Alps.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Daniel Kraft · CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia CommonsFeature: the beaver comes back
Two hundred years ago the beaver disappeared from Switzerland, hunted out. Reintroduction projects between 1956 and 1977 brought it back, and today almost 5,000 live in the country. In the canton of Zurich, the latest survey, in the winter of 2024–25, counted around 520 beavers in 165 territories, three times as many as in 2008. Look for gnawed trunks and the cone-shaped stumps they leave along the banks.
Did you know? The Langenberg Wildlife Park, run with the Sihlwald by the Wildnispark Zürich, is Switzerland's oldest zoo and its largest by area.
Our advice
Our advice: take the S4 up the Sihl valley to Sihlwald for a morning in the forest, and walk the lake promenade to the Zürichhorn at dusk. Keep dogs on a lead in the forest, never feed the swans or the wild animals, and keep to the marked paths in the Sihlwald.
Why it's on our list
- The lake and the rivers
- The Sihlwald and the Uetliberg
- Feature: the beaver comes back
- Our advice
Location
The map comes from Google Maps, which sets its own cookies once it loads.
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