Germany declares war on the boar

David Crossland, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: April 21. 2009 12:21AM UAE / April 20. 2009 8:21PM GMT

Berlin // Germany is being overrun by wild boars scavenging in cities, wreaking havoc with farmland, causing traffic accidents and threatening hikers.

Scientists and hunters blame global warming for a surge in the boars’ reproduction rate, now estimated at over 300 per cent a year, which means 100 boars can grow into almost 10,000 within five years.

Warmer winters have boosted their food supply because trees have been producing more acorns and chestnuts. Boars also have a penchant for maize, now being grown in vast quantities for biofuel.

Violent encounters with the beasts are becoming more frequent and make headlines somewhere in the country virtually every week.

Two people were killed when their car collided with a boar on a motorway in February. Last year 10,000 wild boars died in accidents on German roads.

Alarmed residents in the western town of Rüsselsheim recently called police when a sounder of wild boars tore through the streets looking for food. Police killed them all in a bloodbath in which they fired 100 rounds with their pistols.

In 2007, police scrambled a helicopter to chase a boar that had bitten three people, and one of Germany’s largest cemeteries was ransacked by 20 marauding boars digging for food.

“The population is growing so fast because we’ve been having warmer winters. The trees bear fruit every year now, it used to be just every few years,” said Anke Nuy, a spokeswoman for the German Hunting Federation.

“That means the boars find huge amounts of food even in winter.”

The milder winters have also reduced the death rate of young boars.

Ms Nuy said there was a direct correlation between the number of piglets a sow produces and the amount of energy in the food it consumes. Acorns, chestnuts and maize are all rich in energy.

There are no reliable estimates of the size of the wild boar population in Germany, but the growing number of boars being shot by hunters gives an indication. A total of 477,494 were shot in the 2007-2008 hunting season, 36 per cent above the average of the previous 19 seasons, according to figures from the hunting federation.

Berlin has a wild boar population estimated at between 8,000 and 10,000. They are frequently spotted digging up gardens, trotting along local train tracks and hanging around bus shelters.

It is not uncommon for them to smash their way into homes through glass terrace doors and tear up the furniture.

Wild boars, a species of pig, thrive in many parts of the world including Europe, much of Asia and the Americas.

They have big heads, short legs and tusks that can grow to 20cm. They roam in groups, also known as sounders, of around 20. Northern climates boast the biggest boars where they have been known to grow to a weight in excess of 200 kilograms, although the average adult weight is between 50kg and 90kg.

Despite their weight, they are agile and can reach speeds of up to 50kph over short distances. They are also excellent swimmers.

The animals are so widespread in Germany because around one-fifth of the country is covered in forest, their preferred habitat.

Boars are not aggressive by nature, but they become dangerous when they feel threatened, and females are nervous in the spring when they have given birth.

The animals are highly adaptable to many environments, provided they have access to water, and are omnivores. They will eat roots, worms and mice and have even been spotted devouring rabbits.

Household rubbish also attracts them and they are as happy eating forest acorns as they are tucking into discarded doner kebabs and pizza.

Hunters have dismissed proposals to lower the reproduction rate by lacing food with “contraception pills” because that would poison wildlife with hormones and make it impossible to eat culled boars, which are considered a delicacy.

“The only effective way to reduce their number is to shoot them, but that’s not easy because they have dark hides and are nocturnal, which makes them extremely hard to spot,” Ms Nuy said.

“They are also highly intelligent and have an excellent sense of smell and hearing. They can smell you coming from miles away.”

One sign of their intelligence is the tactic they adopt when devouring maize. “When they enter maize fields they always leave the outer edges of the field intact, presumably to hide what they’re doing,” Ms Nuy said.

Their ability to learn combined with a courageous determination makes them formidable opponents.

Even electric fences do not deter them. One hunter reported seeing a boar get a shock from a fence, then walk back 20 metres and take a running jump. It smashed through the fence in a blaze of sparks.

When hunters come across a group of boars, they are only likely to get one animal because the others scatter at the sound of the shot. Machine guns are not allowed and night sights mounted on rifles are forbidden as well, according to hunting law.

At present, hunters have to rely on luck, skill and the full moon, but moves are afoot to make life harder for the boars.

“We’ve been staging more co-ordinated culls with groups of hunters spanning different hunting territories,” said Ms Nuy, whose organisation represents 390,000 hunters.

The government is also studying proposals to change the layout of maize fields by cutting aisles through them that are planted with equally delicious wild boar food.

“The idea is to attract wild boars to those aisles where they will be more visible and easier to shoot,” Ms Nuy said.

In the meantime, the outcome of the boar war remains open as the beasts continue to invade neighbourhoods and in some cases even send armed officers running for cover.

In April 2008, two policemen were so scared of a rampaging boar that they jumped onto a low balcony to escape it and opened fire with their revolvers. It got away.

dcrossland@thenational.ae