Wild boars thrive in German capital
BERLIN: They have coarse bristles, huge heads with tiny eyes and protruding tusks and, occasionally, a really bad temper. Thousands of wild boars call Berlin home, where they dig up gardens, cause road accidents and rampage through neighborhoods. Especially on the outskirts of the leafy German capital, people have had to learn to live with the massive omnivores.
“Many people tell me: wherever I go, I see wild boars,” said Derk Ehlert, a Berlin municipal wildlife specialist. The population is estimated to hover around 3,000, he said, but sightings are becoming more common. While their numbers have remained steady, their behavior has “changed enormously,” he said.
There are regular reports of joggers and dogwalkers encountering the beasts that can move their bulky bodies at 40 kilometers an hour. Wild boars have even been spotted in the very heart of the city, with two animals, possibly injured in road traffic, charging through Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz shopping square. Daytime sightings are becoming ever more common, said Ehlert, likely because “they are no longer so fearful.”
The metropolis, sometimes dubbed the “wild boar capital” by local media, has long been a haven for all kinds of wild animals. Thousands of foxes prowl its many green spaces, stone martens are known to chew through car cables and raccoons rummage through rubbish bins.
Unlike many big European cities, Berlin also makes for a comfortable home for the hairy ancestors of the domestic pig.
Forests cover 20 percent of greater Berlin, and other green spaces set aside during the 19th century industrial revolution act as wildlife corridors. Plenty of food can be found in allotment gardens and in a belt of maize and other fields around the once divided city. The wild boars have no natural predators, hunting is seasonally restricted, and a series of mild winters has reduced mortality among the offspring. The number of incidents involving wild boars seems to be on the rise-from road accidents, to a suburban train stoppage caused by a herd, to attacks on dogs and occasionally, humans. Then there are the countless gardeners who report having their flowers and veggies ransacked by the wild swine. —AFP