There is a growing number of wild boar sightings in the city, especially in built-up areas. From Turin to Rome , wild boars rummaging through the rubbish or running along the street are generating fears and discomfort among the population and sometimes road accidents, even fatal.

But why do these animals go through cities? What are they attracted to? Is their killing really the only applicable solution?

Wild animals attracted to the urban food niche

Federica Pirrone , professor of veterinary ethology at the University of Milan, explained in a video published in  La Repubblica , that “these animals are attracted to a food niche , represented by easily accessible waste ”.

Here is the first element. Improving the quality of urban waste collection, keeping cities clean , would help prevent wild animals from being attracted to the surrounding countryside and woods.

Indeed, “wild animals such as wild boars do not enter cities to get close to man. On the contrary, they are held back by human activities and traffic ”adds Pirrone.

Why so many wild boars?

To solve the problem it is therefore necessary to understand the causes . As the teacher explains, these animals “are the direct descendants of subjects that we introduced into nature after the war, from Eastern Europe, for hunting purposes.

And this, combined with the shortage of predators such as wolves and bears , the artificial forages made available by the hunters themselves and the rise in temperatures – which has altered the amount of resources available – here all this has led to the doubling of wild boars in the area. last decade “.

Wild boars, non-aggressive animals

We are used to thinking that wild boars are violent animals , pushed to attack humans at the earliest opportunity. 

According to Federica Pirrone, there is nothing more false : “ Wild boars are” harmless “,” shy “, and, in those rare cases in which a wild boar voluntarily attacks a human being, it would be self- defense : an animal – often injured – defending herself from a hunt or a mother intending to protect her own puppies.

Hunting is not the solution

What to do then? Rather than concentrating on killing, it would be better to focus on prevention : eliminate all forms of illicit artificial foraging, prevent their reproduction and initiate programs to rebalance the natural context , thus without hindering repopulation by predators, such as wolves and bears.