Wild Boar Invasion in Rome

In its long history, Rome has withstood many invasions. Gauls, Goths, Spaniards, French and Germans, to name a few, invaded the city and feasted on its riches. But today Rome is threatened by an entirely different kind of invasion. That of the wild boars.

A video of a wild boar has been circulating on the internet since last month (boar in Italian) galloping against traffic on Via Baldo degli Ubaldi, a major thoroughfare close to the Vatican.

Dozens of citizens of Rome have in recent months such encounters established within the city limits.

Invasion from the north

The north of the city is still the main expansion area today. This mainly concerns boar families from the Veio Natural Park, who also feel at ease in the woods and scrub around Via Cassia, already in the middle of the built-up area. There they are occupied with sniffing around in waste, rooting around gardens and eating plants and waste. Meanwhile, the pig invasion has also claimed a fatality: a man on a moped who was rammed by a boar jumping out of the bushes and fell.

Boar plague in Italy

The plague of swine is not limited to the capital. Across Italy, the number of feral pigs has doubled in the last ten years to about one million. The cause dates back to the 80s, when hunters released large wild boars imported from Hungary into Italy. These then mixed with the smaller native specimens that have inhabited the Apennines since time immemorial. The resulting animals, which can weigh up to 250 kilograms, multiplied at great speed, so that they are now looking for Lebensraum outside the mountains and nature reserves.

Roma, allarme cinghiali: la procura indaga sulla gestione dei parchi urbani https://t.co/VomKM2bLBP pic.twitter.com/pFNAwlDk0e

— Roma sul web (@romasulweb) April 9, 2017

Wild boars on the menu

That is no problem for the hunters. With every drive hunt they are assured of a rich loot. After all, the wild boar is an important ingredient of Italian cuisine and you really don't have to be called Obelix to have a good ragout, sausage of stufato di cinghiale to appreciate. But the farmers think otherwise. Stand organization Coldiretti has calculated that the boars destroy 100 million euros worth of crops and equipment every year. That is why more and more permits are issued for the shooting of the animals.

Razzias and animal friends

The city council of Rome does not want to do that yet. The city is not immediately a suitable stage for armed raids that also lead to fierce protests from the local authorities. animal rights activists (animal friends) would lead. That is why there are now plans to sterilize the boars. But it may still take a while to get there. That is why the police have already presented the citizenry with a series of rules of conduct to prevent sexual harassment:

• Avoid the animal
• Don't corner it
• Don't intervene when your dog gets into a fight with a boar
• Only use 'the strategy of the torero' in extreme cases, ie jumping limberly to the side at the last moment.

The municipality of Rome itself is partly responsible for the swine plague, which is directly related to a waste problem that has dragged on for years, as evidenced by this still life in my street.

What could be more appealing to a hungry boar (or seagull, or rat) than a ready meal next to a few overflowing garbage containers? That is bonkers. In the first place, therefore, there is also a great task for the Roman municipal cleansing in solving the swine problem.

Image wild boars in Rome: YouTube