An estimated one million boars, a native species that can weigh up to 300 pounds, now roam the country, destroying crops and causing at least 2,000 car accidents each year, Monaco estimates. And in early 2022, African swine fever was discovered in an Italian boar, raising fears that the wild animals could spread the fatal virus to domestic pigs raised for the meat industry.
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The problem is not unique to Italy, either. Due largely to urbanization and forest regrowth, wild boar populations are expanding across Europe, with sightings and close encounters on the rise in many European metropolises, from Berlin to Madrid to Warsaw.
Marco Massera, a farmer in the city of Genova who cultivates vegetables such as zucchini, eggplants, and bell peppers, has been struggling to deter wild boars on his 19-acre farm for the past 15 years. As the pigs forage for roots and grubs, they dig deep underground.
Indeed, boars are embracing urban areas thanks to plentiful amounts of unsecured trash and people who are eager to feed them, says Monaco. According to his recent study, wild boars are now a familiar presence in 105 Italian cities, compared with only two a decade ago. To show just how comfortable boars are in the city, he references a viral video taken in Rome in March, which shows two sows calmly nursing their piglets in the middle of a road.
Carme Rosell, an expert in wildlife management and head of the environmental consulting firm Minuartia in Spain, has observed similar boldness in Spanish boars. In her country, the wild boar population has doubled in two decades to about a million animals.
In 2005, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to solve the wild boar crisis, Italian government regulators called in hunters. Though Italian boar hunters kill about 295,000 boars annually, the animals reproduce at a faster rate: Every year, their population can grow as much as 150 percent, according to Monaco.
This September, Monaco attended the 13th International Symposium of Wild Boars and Other Suids in Barcelona, where, for the first time, a consensus emerged that wild boars need to be contained across the continent.
Some animal welfare groups advocate sterilizing females instead of killing them. For instance, Massimo Vitturi, an activist for the Rome-based nonprofit Anti-Vivisection League (LAV) suggests that wildlife officials can inject sows with a drug that renders them infertile.
She and her team subdivided the area into about 40 square-mile plots, allocating a specific value to each in terms of its impact from wild boars. By identifying where the boars caused more disruption, the team could suggest where local governments should focus stronger eradication efforts and monetary paybacks to farmers.
How does the relationship between mankind and the wild world change in the city?
From the peregrine falcon, which has moved from the cliffs to the ledges of skyscrapers to nest and hunt its prey, to the common gecko, now a permanent presence even in Alpine cities such as Trento. From carrion crows, which in Japan have learnt to use pedestrian crossings as convenient nutcrackers, to the slow loris, a primate that in Java (Indonesia) is in danger of disappearing due to urban expansion.
These are just some of the stories of nature in the city that you can learn about through videos, interactive and other exhibits and photographs, investigating the relationship, at time disconnected, other times one of coexistence, between mankind and animal and plant species in an increasingly urbanised world.
Contact with nature and wildlife is also hugely important for people; quite simply, contact with our natural environment makes us happy! The project works with people across the city on projects that are great for wildlife and, importantly, improve our quality of life too.
The Topsham Road nature corridor is part of a new way of approaching city meadow management. In 2022 ECC and DWT will focus meadow efforts along Topsham Road to create a long corridor that connects valley parks, gardens and a whole host of private and public green spaces that provide homes for wildlife. In years to come, further corridors will be developed around the city. Read our FAQs sheet to find out more.
We have links with a growing list of public, statutory, voluntary and community organisations including Met Office and University of Exeter.We work with almost every school in the city and are keen to support community associations.
Working together with Exeter City Council and the RSPB, Exeter now has a nationally acclaimed Residential Design Guide which provides information on including nesting spaces within new build. The city is also one of the first in England to install a swift tower!
We work with community groups, schools and Exeter City Council to sow wildflowers around the city each year. Meadows in parks, school grounds, along roadsides, within business landscapes and on roundabouts are helping our important urban pollinators and create more attractive public spaces for everyone to enjoy.
Although hunting fraternities were quick to augment this fledgling population with wild boars transported from elsewhere, the return of the species was primarily due to natural causes. From the 1950s onwards, traditional agricultural practices were abandoned as more and more people moved from rural towns into the cities. This meant that large areas of formerly cultivated terraces and pastures were rapidly overgrown, fast becoming dense secondary woodlands.
The province of Genoa is among the areas most densely populated by wild boar in Italy, with an estimated 25 boar per 10km. Rewilding processes have brought woodlands to the city limits, blurring the boundary between rural and urban areas. The species has expanded beyond the hinterlands, colonising highly urbanised, densely populated city spaces in Genoa, drawn by the abundance of food waste created by humans.
Wild boar have been involved in a number of traffic accidents, and have proven to be particularly dangerous when with their young, attacking dogs and even people. The city council in Genoa has put forward many proposals to reduce the number of animals in the city, ranging from forced removals, to sterilisation, increased attention to waste disposal and approved hunts. About 90 wild boar were reportedly culled in 2018.
And so Genoa continues to grapple with thorny issues surrounding the presence of wild boar in the city, with the city authorities seeking to resolve a polemical issue that embroils the lives of animals and humans alike. So far, a collective, coherent and communally agreeable strategy has proven evasive; one that considers the need for public safety, hygiene and health with the ethical responsibilities towards to wild boar themselves.
This stunning Italian city might not be on your radar, but if you wonder if you should visit Ravenna, the answer is a straight Yes! There are many things to do in Ravenna, more than you would imagine. One above all: the mosaics in Ravenna. One of the most breathtaking landmarks in Italy.
Hotel Palazzo Bezzi: Contemporary and stylish, Palazzo Bezzi in Ravenna provides excellent value for money. The railway station is only a 10 minutes walk, and the city center is very close. The hotel offers all amenities, including air conditioning and a spa. Find out more here
My theory: All 1,603 inhabitants of this Texan town are obliged by city law to wear a fringe of hair on their foreheads, regardless of their gender or degree of sympathy for Zooey Deschanel. Furry animals are not exempt.
In 1950, popular NBC Radio host Ralph Edwards challenged American cities to rename themselves after his quiz show. Hot Spring, NM promptly accepted the challenge and became Truth or Consequences. This means that any American citizen could wake up tomorrow and be a resident of Game of Thrones or The Big Bang Theory. Sleep well, America. The weirdest city names have yet to air.
Originally called Artesia, the town changed its name in 1966 in an attempt to capitalize on its proximity to the Dinosaur National Monument. Willing to go all the way, they also renamed many streets to things like Tyrannosaurus Trail or Antrodemus Alley. In the grand scheme of weirdest city names, this is where I want to spend my retirement years.
On the list of weirdest city names, this one perfectly describes where I stand on every important matter and derives its name from the fact that, being at the border between Texas and Louisiana, it was initially unclear which state it actually belonged to.
The canals in Venice have become clear enough to see the return of fish, swans and even cormorants. The lack of boats and cruise ships on the canals and in the harbor keeps water movements at a minimum, causing clay particles and other pollutants to settle on the ground. On social media people share videos and photos showing dolphins swimming in the canals. As noted by this National Geographic article, some aspects of this part of the story seem to be exaggerated or misleading. Swans and other seabirds are regular visitors to the canals of Burano, an island in the bay of Venice. Marine wildlife, like dolphins, will eventually enter the bay, but the supposedly recent images were actually filmed last year.
Curious dolphins approaching the now empty piers are reported in the port of Cagliari, one of the largest Italian seaports and one of the largest seaports in the Mediterranean Sea basin, with an annual traffic capacity of around 50 million tonnes of cargo and 1,000,000 containers.
The city looked like a scene from the Walking Dead (sans zombies, I hope). Grey and stormy skies, trees lifted up from their roots and strewn on the streets, garbage blowing everywhere, traffic lights not working, cars stopped in the streets. It was actually really eerie.
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