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posted by martyb on Monday September 27 2021, @08:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the wild-"boar"ing-story dept.

Calls for cull as scavenging wild boars trot across Italy and into Rome - ABC News:

Rome has been invaded by Gauls, Visigoths and Vandals over the centuries, but the Eternal City is now grappling with a rampaging force of an entirely different sort: rubbish-seeking wild boars.

[...] Families of wild boars have become a daily sight in Rome, as groups of up to 30 beasts emerge from the city's parks to trot down traffic-clogged streets in search of food.

[...] There are over 2 million wild boars in Italy, according to agriculture body Coldiretti.

In the Lazio region, surrounding Rome, there are an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 in city parks.

A few hundred of them regularly leave the trees and greenery for urban asphalt and rubbish bins.

[...] Lazio parks manager Maurizio Giubbiotti said the region needed to increase the boar cull from 700 over two years to at least 1,000 annually to control the situation.

[...] Wild boars can weigh up to 100 kilograms, posing a not-insignificant threat to the elderly and young children.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday September 27 2021, @08:55AM (3 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Monday September 27 2021, @08:55AM (#1181801)

    rubbish-seeking wild boars

    Is this what tourists are called now?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Monday September 27 2021, @01:02PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Monday September 27 2021, @01:02PM (#1181840)

      Is this what tourists are called now?

      On behalf of the non-pig-infested one true papacy in Avignon, *pulls down visored sallet while flailing a morningstar*, Oui.

      --
      compiling...
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by weilawei on Monday September 27 2021, @05:01PM

      by weilawei (109) on Monday September 27 2021, @05:01PM (#1181912)
      I'm confused. Clearly, they have boars because there's food being thrown out. And now tasty food is coming in search of it. What exactly is wrong with this? ;)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:08PM (#1182387)

      I think you mean "bores".

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Monday September 27 2021, @09:01AM (2 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Monday September 27 2021, @09:01AM (#1181802)

    Just send out to a little indomitable village in Armorica for some help and the excess boar problem will be sorted in no time.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @10:27AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @10:27AM (#1181807)

      Ils sont fous ces romains

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Monday September 27 2021, @10:48AM

      by Opportunist (5545) on Monday September 27 2021, @10:48AM (#1181811)

      Better not. You have seen in France where that leads to. Sure, that got rid of the boars, but now the landscape is littered with menhirs.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @10:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @10:58AM (#1181815)

    slaughter 'em boars.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by quietus on Monday September 27 2021, @11:27AM (7 children)

    by quietus (6328) on Monday September 27 2021, @11:27AM (#1181819) Journal

    A wild boar can weigh up to 300 kilos, not one hundred.

    They're not as dangerous [to humans] as the press reports make out though: I've been mowing one of my fields (with a scythe) up to 10 meters from a birth chamber, without being attacked (I didn't know at the time there was a birth chamber there, but heard them boars rushing away through the reeds).

    Also, the plot of land I use for vegetable keeping: they forage for food at the entrance, but do not actually enter the vegetable plots (though they easily could). They did cause some damage to grain fields though, using these to hide away, and (presumably) for foraging.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by canopic jug on Monday September 27 2021, @11:42AM (1 child)

      by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 27 2021, @11:42AM (#1181823) Journal

      They're not as dangerous [to humans] as the press reports make out though:

      They are omnivorous and enjoy meat. They have no qualms about eating injured pigs or killing and eating smaller, weaker animals. They are also rather clever. So the danger is more that there is the potential that they could suddenly learn that kids and old people are made of tasty meat.

      --
      Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @02:33PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @02:33PM (#1181870)

        Oink, these tall skinny things taste like us!!
        Oink Oink

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @01:14PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @01:14PM (#1181842)

      I guess you never saw "Snatch", nor "Hannibal".
      technically only Hannibal had wild boars, but anyway.

      long story short: pigs would definitely eat babies if given the opportunity.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 27 2021, @01:24PM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday September 27 2021, @01:24PM (#1181845)

      The max weight of a wild boar depends on the environment, the urban area of Rome probably doesn't provide maximal growing opportunities.

      The wild boar in Central Florida frequently get up to 150kg, and while they won't generally attack without provocation - many residents of Central Florida will knowingly provoke a boar to "prove their manliness" and serious injury to the manly man does occasionally follow.

      The main nuisance about boar to our lives is that we have a slow growing grass road under an oak canopy and it can go for 5-10 years without a problem, but then a single boar decides it looks like a good foraging ground to root for acorns in and he can tear up several hundred square feet of turf per night until he moves on, or is euthanized - the turf then takes several years to recover to its previous state.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:24AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:24AM (#1182614)

        the turf then takes several years to recover to its previous state.

        This problem was solved in the 60's... AstroTurf [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 27 2021, @01:28PM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday September 27 2021, @01:28PM (#1181848) Journal

    Sounds like an invitation to a national BBQ in Italy. They could make it an international invitational where everyone from Hawaiians to Spaniards could show off their pork roasting skills.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday September 27 2021, @06:50PM (2 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday September 27 2021, @06:50PM (#1181946) Homepage
      Be careful what you wish for. Not all barbecues are good.
      Wild pigs are notorious for carrying diseases with high infection rates, and some of which have been known to jump to humans.
      We get pigs coming over from Russia via Latvia, and sometimes whole farms-full have to be culled and incinerated.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 27 2021, @08:15PM (1 child)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday September 27 2021, @08:15PM (#1181971) Journal

        FatPhil, don't look a gift pig in the mouth!

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 5, Funny) by FatPhil on Monday September 27 2021, @08:29PM

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday September 27 2021, @08:29PM (#1181981) Homepage
          I never do!
          I went to a local restaurant a few weeks ago, and decided to treat myself to their hock. Always a huge piece, so much crackling on it, just fantastic - and usually enough for two.
          "I'll have your house dark beer, and the hock", I said.
          "Pardon, sir?" the waitress responded.
          "The house dark beer," which elicited a nod, "and the pork hock, please. You know - hock. Hic, haec, hoc, hunc, hanc, hoc, huius, huius, huius."
          A while later, she returned, with just a beer.
          "Where's the food I ordered?" I enquired.
          "You may have ordered it, sir, but you then declined it."
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 4, Funny) by stretch611 on Monday September 27 2021, @10:10PM

      by stretch611 (6199) on Monday September 27 2021, @10:10PM (#1182018)

      I smell bacon...

      (and it is the good 4-legged kind... not cops)

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Username on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:13AM

    by Username (4557) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:13AM (#1182132)

    Must be interesting to set up your stand on a telephone pole, watch traffic going by, waiting for the pigs (not cops.) Or driving around on a sidebyside with guns mounted. Dogs chasing them down. Swerving between pedestrians.

    Do hunting parties get the rightaway? like police or ambulances? Do they get those red and blue lights on top? If they don't get their quarry, the poor might not get their daily hog meal allotment.

    Dystopian novel turned real.

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