Wild boars invade Rome, collect garbage and become the center of an electoral controversy

Legend has it that Rome, the Eternal City, was founded at the end of the 7th century BC by two twins, Romulus and Remus. The brothers, according to myth, were breastfed at birth by a wolf who found them abandoned in a basket on the Tiber.

Today, there are few wolves left around the Italian capital, but many wild boars which have literally invaded the big cities attracted by the large amount of garbage that accumulates every day in its streets.

Over the centuries, Rome has been invaded by the Gauls, Visigoths and Barbarians. But now he is facing a phenomenon that no one knows how to deal with. Whole wild boar families walk leisurely through the traffic and sidewalks of the city’s northern streets and they rummage through the trash cans, still full after several days without collection.

This situation has become a real emergency for the Romans and the issue has burst into the electoral campaign for the municipal elections on October 3 and 4.

A symbol of the capital’s decadence?

Many Romans believe that the presence of wild boars in the city is a symbol of Rome’s decline.

The different candidates for Capitol, the Roman municipal seat, accuses the current municipal head of this situation Virginie raggi, of the 5-Star Movement, which is seeking re-election. He is criticized for not having solved the problem of garbage collection

But Raggi defends himself and in turn accuses the president of the Lazio region, which surrounds the capital, Nicola Zingaretti, member of the Democratic Party (PD), not to deal with peripheral agricultural localities where there should be control of these animals.

Wild boars at the center of the debate

In recent days and in the midst of the campaign, the various candidates, such as the independent Carlo Calenda and the leader of the far-right League, Matteo salvini, shared some videos on social networks of 13 wild boars – three adults and ten cubs – walking quietly in the traffic of Trionfale Street, north of the capital.

“We live immersed in garbage and we turned Rome into an open dump and many neighborhoods have also been transformed into an open-air biopark, with various species of animals roaming the streets ”, accused the PD candidate for mayor in turn, Roberto Gualtieri.

Don’t you think now is the time to sit down and face the problem? “Calenda asked on social media with the video of the wild boar family crossing the street stopping the traffic. Salvini l ‘argued: “Is this the continuity that Raggi wants to give to the capital of Italy?”

For his part, the president of Lazio affirmed that “the municipality of Rome is not fulfilling its duty. The AMA (the waste collection management company) is practically bankrupt, it has changed eight directors in five years and the municipality to four councilors in five years. It’s a shame because there is no planning and they cannot pick up trash on the streets and there are mice and wild boars ”he warned.

In response, Raggi filed a complaint against the Lazio region in which he claimed that “the massive and uncontrolled presence of wild boars“On the territory of the capital was” a consequence of the inability of the region to foresee and implement effective control management plans “.

Are wild boars harmful?

According to the Higher Institute for Research and Environmental Protection, there could be at least a million wild boars in Italy.

About ten years ago, it was estimated that there was half of it. These animals are present with varying degrees of regularity not only in Rome but in 90 cities across the country. Lazio authorities estimate that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 wild boars in municipal parks in the region.

The area where there are more wild boar sightings in Rome is the one adjacent to the Insugherata and Veio natural parks. But in addition, garbage is an important food resource for these wild animals, especially if the garbage floods the streets and they can search quietly without effort.

Experts further explain that the presence of mountains of garbage in the capital has also changed the habits of wild boars: in nature they are nocturnal animals, but since the containers are mostly filled during the day, many wild boars have learned to enjoy it during these hours.

Maurizio Giubbiotti, in charge of Lazio parks, said that in order to control the situation, the region must increase the number of wild boar slaughterings from 700 in two years to at least a thousand per year.