Growing numbers of wild boar plague Italy

ROME, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Farmers have lost $95 million this year in Italy, where wild boars are breeding prolifically and have no natural predators, The Telegraph said Monday.

Coldiretti, a farmers' association, reports "nothing seems to be spared" during the animals' rampages and there have been "numerous cases of wild boar pushing into built-up areas, crossing roads and causing serious accidents."

Worst hit are grapes and corn, cereals, hazelnut plantations and flower nurseries.

Although nearly extinct a century ago, wild boar were reintroduced throughout Italy in the 1950s for hunting. But the new species was much bigger than the original Mediterranean wild boar, and in the absence of its natural predators, the wolf and lynx, its population has soared.

To make matters worse, as the numbers of wild boar continue to rise, Italy's registered hunters are fast declining. To shoot boar, groups of about 25 hunters must be organized, the newspaper said.