After six months of waiting, the Sustainability and Environment Delegation of the Andalusian Junta gave the Malaga City Council the authority to bring the archers to the streets. Their goal is simple: to control the population of wild boars and feral pigs that are causing havoc in the city.

A few weeks ago we told how the Galician countryside has been successfully using this “approach” for years. However, Spain’s jump to the fifth city shows that this trend is strengthening. After a year of lack of control, will the management be able to achieve the goal this time?

What’s happening in Malaga? What is happening in Malaga is nothing more than a particular situation that affects the entire Peninsula (and indeed most of the world). For months, many Malaga neighborhoods and municipalities in the province have been subjected to a real invasion of wild boars, feral pigs and various hybrids.

Overpopulation, food and water shortages caused by drought, and a lack of control measures come together. The result was endless problems: traffic accidents, property damage, attacks on pets and, above all, great anxiety among neighbors.

An idea. With this in mind, at the beginning of the year the Malaga City Council allocated 15,000 euros and asked the Andalusian Government for permission to start hunting wild boar with a bow.

Why archers? Because it seems to work. In 2019, the Environmental Department of Xunta de Galicia launched a pilot project for wild boar hunting with cages specially designed for this. But this did little good, and the problems caused by feral herds continued to grow.

So they decided to try the archers. In the statements made at that time, it was claimed that this was the safest, most secret and most effective “hunt control” system. This approach worked. And while other administrations tried more conservative approaches, this success popularized the idea of ​​archery.

So what will they do? As reported by the City Council, it tasked the Wild Species Spring Control Service Group (SCAES), approved by the Andalusian Hunting Federation, to be responsible for control measures under the supervision of Seprona.

According to the public calendar, starting this week, archers will “observe the animals, tracking their behavior, and detecting the leader of the herd and attempting to intervene and disrupt other roads in the city.”

In addition, the Environmental Area will establish a network of watering holes throughout the area to deter animals from approaching the urban area. On the other hand, a very intense discussion is ongoing with foster communities in the region about introducing a chemical castration program that would help manage the problem in a less “brutal” way.

Basic problem. As humans retreat into cities and their presence becomes a testimony, many species begin to “grow up.” We are talking about wild boars because they sneak into cities carelessly; but there are also wolves, bears or deer. Animals that grow up in degraded environments that cannot self-regulate and eventually cause problems.

These problems will get bigger. And eventually they will take us to a point where we don’t want to be: taking on comprehensive management of the ecosystems that surround us. It is expensive, complex and irreversible; But as we see, it is something that will be inevitable.

Image | Asier Solana Bermejo

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