The Chamber of Abrantes (Santarém) intends to see wild boar slaughter actions carried out in urban areas, with the mayor of the municipality expressing his concern with the growing number of sightings and animals circulating in the city.
"This is a matter that worries us and that is not new, with sightings in the urban areas of the municipality for more than a decade, but in the last four to five years, reports of sightings of wild boar in the region have been increasingly frequent in the centre of the city" of Abrantes, the mayor of the municipality told Lusa, having indicated the fear of "possible attacks by animals, if they feel threatened", in addition to "endangering road safety".
While noting "there are no records of attacks" by wild boars on people in Abrantes, Manuel Jorge Valamatos (PS) defended, however, the need to create a "strategy" and a "legal framework" capable of "mitigating the excessive presence of animals of this species" within the city.
"Licenses have been issued by the ICNF [Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests] for occasional wild boar slaughter in hunting areas and, there, there has been interventions by hunter associations", he observed, noting, however, that "Licenses are not issued to shoot inside cities".
Anpromis - National Association of Corn and Sorghum Producers has also expressed its opinion, having indicated, in a report presented in July, that the damage caused by wild boar in the corn crop reached, last year, eight million euros.
According to the entity, the "uncontrolled increase in the wild boar population that has been seen in recent years in our country is causing massive and increasing damage to the national agricultural sector", with Anpromis concluding that "the damage caused by wild boars in the corn fields of its associates represented, in 2022, an extremely high value, around 8.0 million euros".
Keep urban areas clean? Collect rubbish left on the streets? That would certainly be an improvement.
By k from Other on 22 Aug 2023, 15:42
If they stopped destroying the natural forest with eucalyptus, the wild boar would be happy in their natural environment. There is not much wildlife left in Portugal due to hunting and fishing kills. Maybe they should catch them and move them, or is that too easy? Let them roam where they want to
By Steff from Other on 22 Aug 2023, 15:58
The wild boar population has doubled in recent years so they are actually no longer happy in their own areas ... this year they, together with families of deer, have crossed from the forest in great numbers on to my rustic property (and others) for easy pickings, they have rapidly destroyed five years of decorative planting plus 90 percent of this year's vegetables, broken fencing and damaged retaining walls and fruit trees. This is a new and potentially dangerous situation whereby necessary balance has unfortunately rapidly faltered due to a variety of reasons, and ultimately affects everyone if food production generally should become heavily impacted.
By Elaine from Other on 22 Aug 2023, 22:36
Yum
By Hart from Lisbon on 23 Aug 2023, 10:44
The Boars destroy everything by eating and digging. If they spread to viticultural areas the industry could be threatened. I’m betting they are an invasive species. Hunting them is a must.
By David Eckhous from USA on 23 Aug 2023, 10:54
They are good to eat !
By David Eckhous from USA on 23 Aug 2023, 10:56
Don't worry David, the Portuguese kill anything which is vaguely alive. It's a miracle that there is indeed any wild life left.
By K from Other on 23 Aug 2023, 14:25
Difficult subject, because everyone is perfectly correct; all be it with some with more practical problems than esoteric (going to get another Chardonnay from the fridge while watching shark week on espn )ones.
Eucalyptus mono culture is a massive problem!! and despite assurances that things will be addressed it hasn’t been, from a ground level perspective.
So as someone who planted 50 cork oaks to try to revive and recover some indigenous wildlife in the long term, and despite fences motion lights, banging pots and pans they where all dug up and destroyed in a weekend.
Market garden idea lol.
Chicken coop didn’t last a week.
Irrigation channels for new olive trees… I’m just watering the pigs…
Some The size of a small horse.
But hey I’m surrounded by eucalyptus and they know my plants and some of Portugal’s future native cork were are an easy meal.
Balance
By Luc from Other on 24 Aug 2023, 12:25
Boar are not invasive. Humans are the problem. Around my rural home all have been hunted to extinction. As for deer, they only appear on antiquated signs, all long gone. Let wild animals be wild, remove the human element. Life would be better.
By Steff from Other on 24 Aug 2023, 15:07