Urban wild boar are back on the streets

The altogether dozen urbanized swine munched calmly along the tram tracks for several minutes, until a municipal street sweeping truck caused the whole herd to scurry along the median until they met a cat and chased it into a nearby shopping center parking lot, as the DELFI TV witness video footage shows. The herd is likely, but not confirmed to be the same one sighted on February 26.

Mayor Nils Ušakovs on his Facebook profile admitted the city could round up the boar herd and move them to another more remote territory of the local government, but there are no guarantees another bunch won’t move in behind them.

Apparently living in the expansive wooded nooks of Jugla neighborhood, the herd is currently migrating back and forth between the Biķernieks forest park and Bābelīte on its seasonal feeding rounds. The mayor believes they will cease their roaming through town when spring arrives, he posted.

Ušakovs thinks the wild boar situation is the same as with the so-called beaver problem in town. The fact alone that they live here is testimony to our very favorable ecology, claims the mayor.

Ušakovs is convinced the wild boar pose no threat to Riga residents, provided one doesn’t try to get to know them better and move too close.