August 2, 2018
By the city of Nova Gorica, just under Rožna Dolina, there is a city forest (mestni gozd) called Panovec, which every day sees about 200 joggers, cyclists, strollers and other visitors. In the past few years, however, the forest also became an increasingly popular spot for herds of wild boar. How many there are is not really clear, MMC reports hunters' estimates vary from five to 50 animals.
Wild boar are mostly active at night, and can cause significant damage to fields and gardens while digging for food. Understandably, such adventures are unpopular with gardeners and farmers.
With a rising number of boar in the city forest, there has been a rising number of complaints from local citizens, who wake up realising their gardens have been ransacked overnight. So the city council planned to lift the prohibition on hunting, a common ban that extends over all areas of human settlement. However, the proposed change did not pass the vote.
Similar to pigs, wild boar are smart animals who have most possibly figured out where to take refuge from hunters, who took down over 11,000 last year. Quite a significant number given that in 1770 Maria Theresa gave an order that got them exterminated from these lands, and they weren’t seen again until the early 20th century, when they started to inhabit the north-east of the country, and then slowly spread across all of Slovenia.
