Wild boars grow streetwise and blatant in Berlin

Nature Features

Jan 21, 2008, 7:38 GMT

Berlin - Berlin's wild pigs have become canny. The boars, sensitive to the lightest human footfall in the surrounding woodlands, browse urban refuse bins unconcerned by passing traffic. They know they are safe from the hunter's rifle in the built-up areas. A couple of the pigs, close relatives of the domestic variety, even found their way to a childcare centre near Alexanderplatz, right in the middle of Berlin, before being shot a couple of years ago. City authorities have issued a strict ban on feeding the animals, some 4,000 of which are thought to have become 'urbanized.' A further 6,000 roam the surrounding woodlands along the many lakes around Berlin. The advice to those encountering a boar is 'to keep calm at all costs' - advice that is easily dispensed but less easy to heed. Wild sows with young are notoriously dangerous, particularly for children attracted by the striped piglets. Kleinmachnow, a community of some 20,000 on the western outskirts of Berlin, has even taken the unusual step of licensing a small number of experienced local hunters to shoot boar within the residential area. The pigs - formally known as Sus scrofa scrofa - have lost all fear of humans over recent years, foraging by day and night in gardens, compost heaps and refuse bins. Some residents, contrary to the regulations, even feed them. While the rich pickings and the knowledge that they are secure have combined to lure the boars into the city, modern agricultural methods have made the countryside less attractive. And the rise in the number of hunters in Germany from 225,000 some 40 years ago to almost 350,000 now has done little to dent the numbers, despite the popularity of boar dishes. 'We no longer have the old countryside with its meadows, stables and barns, but rather an industrial agricultural complex,' Undine Kurth, a conservation spokeswoman for the Greens Party, says. She expresses sympathy for the animals, which she sees as 'ill- equipped' to deal with the urban environment. Most Berliners, however, thrill to the sight of wildlife in their city, whether of a sparrowhawk over Alexanderplatz, a hedgehog in their compost heap or a fox trotting up the road after dark. But while the idea of urban boar may have its attractions, the reality of confronting 70 kilos of raw muscle equipped with 10- centimetre tusks in the back garden is enough to put most off after the first encounter. © 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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