Wild boar menace removed; residents rest after months of terror

This was a glorious year for wild boars - the porcine apex omnivores have been pronounced animal of the year not in one but two Baltic states, Estonia and Latvia - and enjoyed success in winning back territory even from downtown Riga. However, all good things are bound to end, and today a whole family of boars has been caught to be deported back to somewhere they belong. Signs point that the human onslaught will continue, making Riga no country for wild boars.

"Thanks to heroic conduct both by Municipal police and professional hunters, this pack of wild boars that had shamelessly terrorized the populace has been detained in Mežciems. Jugla and the surrounding regions will be able to live peacefully for some time. All the detainees - 2 adults and 13 minor trespassers - are behind bars and await deportation outside the Riga Municipality. No boars have been harmed during the apprehension," mayor Nils Ušakovs stated on Facebook.

He also posted photos of the apprehended boars on Twitter:

Last week Riga was preparing to embark on a wild boar chase, and it was decided that wild boars sporadically roaming throughout the capital will be caught and deported to a forest owned by the municipality a few dozen kilometers outside Riga. The boars were to be marked and registered so that their movement can be tracked. They were to be caught using traps, using corn as a lure as wild boars are quite fond of it.

The Rīga Municipality posted photos on Twitter, proving that no boars have been harmed:

"The boars caught at Mežciems will be released into the wild near a forest by Tīnūži."

Here they are, being released into the wild and enjoying a good mudbath.

The representative to the boars, possibly a chieftain or perhaps president-elect, had this to say to the mayor of Riga:

"I know the way back!"