Opinion | Time for Hong Kong to control its roaming wild boars before we are overrun, like Rome

Name: Hong Kong wrestling with wild boar dilemma in the Year of the Pig
Uploaded: 2021-10-21T22:45:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 17 s
Description: Hong Kong wrestling with wild boar dilemma in the Year of the Pig

Despite the many popular videos of them on social media, wild boars have ceased to be cute and are increasingly a menace

It is time to reconsider the measures taken against wild boars before the problem grows out of hand, as it has in other cities

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A wild boar approaches people eating in Aberdeen Country Park on October 2, 2020. Photo: Edmond So

Bernard Chan

Published: 6:45am, 22 Oct 2021

Pamplona in Spain has the running of the bulls. Hong Kong has the running of the boars. Videos have circulated on social media of a pack of more than 20 boars, big and small, running after a taxi at night.

Urban boar sightings have become almost a sport, with videos of them roaming around Hong Kong some of the most widely shared on social media. Hogging the spotlight include film of a family of boars casually swimming in the fountain outside a Bank of China branch in Central, the seemingly harmless wild piglets that caught the MTR in Quarry Bay and a large boar standing on its hind legs to get into a dustbin.

But when do wild boars stop being cute and start becoming a nuisance, or even a danger? Is it when they encroach on our MTR stations like they have in Kennedy Town, Wong Chuk Hang and Quarry Bay, to name a few? When they intrude onto Hong Kong International Airport’s tarmac? How about when they walk city streets alongside pedestrians?

What about when they attack citizens? A boar bit a hiker in July. A wild boar charged an elderly woman near The Peak earlier this month, shattering her elbow and breaking her hip. The victim said she underwent two surgeries lasting five hours and costing HK$500,000 (US$64,000).

Though attacks on humans are rare, they can be serious. Perhaps it is time to reconsider the measures taken against wild boars.

01:17

Hong Kong wrestling with wild boar dilemma in the Year of the Pig

Wild boars are not domesticated pets, though some people feed them as if they are, further attracting them to urban areas. Boars can weigh up to 200kg and grow to almost 1 metre tall and 2 metres long, which can be fearsome if you are a child, elderly or frail. They are swift, nocturnal, good swimmers, omnivorous and have sharp tusks.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x