A massive herd of wild baby boars was spotted strutting the streets of the northern city of Haifa on Sunday evening, according to the footage which appeared on social media.
The incident, which is among the latest in a series of similar occurrences in the city, was filmed by an unknown bystander. The footage shows a group of young boars, headed by one mature female, who acted as both the leader and the guardian of the hog troupe, walking along the street as cars go by.
Herd of baby boars roam Haifa streets
According to one resident of Haifa, the boar invasion is a common occurrence in the city, especially during nighttime. The Haifa Municipality, however, claims there has been a 40% in the number of reports of wild boars within the city's borders. "In May-June, 976 boar-related calls were received at the municipal center, while in July-August, only 566 inquiries had been received."
During the first pandemic-induced closure in March and April, sightings of wild boars in the city were at its peak, at some point becoming an every-day occurrence.
The boars managed to get their snouts into private and public gardens in their search for food and water. They also routinely knocked down garbage bins, sometimes destroying property and causing havoc.
The municipality for their part tried to stop the boars from piggybacking on the closure, by taking certain precautive measures such as gating neighborhoods and tieing down bins.
And while the reports of sightings have decreased, the boars still appear roam the the city's streets and flip over an occasional garbage bin in search of food.
"I do not think there are fewer encounters, but fewer reports," said Yaron Hanan, a city resident working to reduce the number of wild boars in Haifa. "We hear of fewer encounters during the day, but encounters still occur at night, sometimes almost resulting in accidents as they cross roads."
According to the municipality, "this is a positive figure that indicates the effectiveness of the policy the municipality is implementing, which is in fact a combination of several measures at the same time.”
Among the measures taken to insure the residents’ safety, is the appointment of an urban ecology expert who "coordinates all activities on the matter, including fixing bins, fencing public areas, enforcement against boars' feeders, planting vegetation that does not attract wild pigs and education the public on the importance of maintaining cleanliness in public space.”