<
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240320-why-invasive-wild-pigs-might-not-be-all-bad>
'The pop superstar Shakira experiences many forms of attention; some wanted,
some not, and some in the form of wild animals. In autumn 2020, while walking
with her son in a Barcelona park, she faced the latter: an assault by a pair of
bag-snatching wild boars. "They've destroyed everything," she later said of her
boar-torn purse.
The singer's assailants are not uncommon in urban Europe. Once hunted at scale
(and to extinction in the UK), the naturally reclusive wild boar is on the rise
again across the continent. And, from the beaches of Marbella to the streets of
Rome, they are also becoming increasingly bold; nosing their way into both
handbags and headlines by biting backsides, accosting shoppers, and prompting
curfews to protect residents. In Berlin recently, authorities believe one of
the city's 3,000-5,000 "wildschwein" was even mistaken for a lion.
In North America too, concern over feral swine or hogs, as they are known in
the US, is growing. First imported by European explorers more than five
centuries ago, domestic escapees soon formed the continent’s first invasive
populations. In the 1900s, these were joined by wild boar shipped over for
hunting. Today, at least 35 US states have highly fecund wild drifts. Numbering
an estimated six million and rising, these boar-domestic hybrids are thought to
cause an annual $2.5bn (£2.1bn) in damage to US crops, especially peanuts and
corn, as well as affecting forests and livestock.
But as wild swine have been reclaiming and expanding their range, so has a new
outlook on humanity's relationship to nature been gaining ground. Known as
rewilding, the European-born movement aims to return landscapes to a wilder
state. One prominent means of achieving this is through "trophic" rewilding, in
which missing species of large animals and plants are reintroduced or
replicated. In doing so, natural processes that can encourage biodiversity are
restored and ecological richness unleashed, proponents argue.
So where do wild pigs fit in? Are they welcome megafauna or menace? And in
today's crowded landscapes – where some species are missing and others are
invasive – can we hope to achieve a balance that works for wildlife and
humanity alike?'
Via
Positive.News
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
