Rome is being invaded by groups of rubbish-seeking wild boars
- Entire families of wild boars have emerged from the parks in search of food in Rome’s overflowing rubbish bins
- As Rome gears up for a local election, the boar invasion has been used as a political weapon to attack the mayor over the city’s rubbish collection problems
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.
Entire families of wild boars have become a daily sight in Rome, as groups of 10-30 beasts young and old emerge from the vast parks surrounding the city to trot down traffic-clogged streets in search of food in Rome’s notoriously overflowing rubbish bins.
Posting wild boar videos on social media has become something of a sport as exasperated Romans capture the scavengers marching past their shops, strollers or playgrounds.
As Rome gears up for a local election next weekend, the wild boar invasion has been used as a political weapon to attack Mayor Virginia Raggi over the city’s rubbish collection problems. But experts say the issue is more complicated and tied at least in part to a booming boar population.
Italy’s main agriculture lobby, Coldiretti, estimates there are more than 2 million wild boars in Italy. The region of Lazio surrounding Rome estimates there are 5,000-6,000 of them in city parks, a few hundred of which regularly abandon the trees and green for urban asphalt and trash bins.
To combat their growing numbers, Lazio launched a programme in 2019 to capture the beasts in park cages for slaughter, and last month approved a new decree to allow selective hunting of boars in some parks, which until now had been strictly forbidden.