Friday, 14 May 2021

The Italian Job

In the village of Le Rughe, near Rome, a woman was reportedly surrounded by a herd of wild boar in a supermarket car park (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/14/wild-boar-corner-woman-in-rome-and-steal-food-shopping). The woman was 'forced' to drop her shopping bags and the boar 'stole' their contents. This event is apparently reigniting debate about human safety from wild animals. The event must have been a frightening experience for the woman (there were 4 adult boar and 2 juveniles). The boar, however, have no concept of ownership. This was, from their point of view, a foraging opportunity for hungry animals. I suspect that the boar were attracted to the supermarket car park by ready access to edible 'waste'. The supermarket could consequently probably do something to make the location less attractive to the boar?

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