Wild boar attacks in Barcelona down 70% in last two years

The Mediterranean Sea, the Besós and Llobregat rivers, and the Collserola mountain surround Barcelona.

However, Collserola is home to not only Barcelona residents but also dozens of wild boars. These animals have become less scared of people and attack their properties, looking for food. Even Colombian singer Shakira was attacked by one of these feral pigs.

According to figures shared by the city council on Sunday, the number of reports related to the presence of wild boars dropped by 70%, from 1,321 to 417, between 2022 and 2024.

These figures "are proof of the effectiveness of the implemented measures to reduce the presence of wild boars in urban areas," a press release reads.

The goal was to reduce the number of these animals "after an increase in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic."

Districts closer to the mountains, Collserola and Montjuïc, such as Les Corts, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Gràcia, Horta-Guinardó, and Nou Barris, have registered a decrease in feral pig incidents.

Gràcia, for example, numbers dropped from 131 to 12, in Horta-Guinardó from 327 to 70, or in Nou Barris, from 251 to 55. Meanwhile, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi is the area with the highest number of incidents reported, 220, during the last year.

Catalonia has experienced a tremendous drought in recent years, which has also helped authorities tackle the problem of wild boars.

"Banning watering gardens in the Collserola mountain in Barcelona has pushed away wild boars as they can not remove the soil," Carme Maté, head of Barcelona's city council animal's rights service, said in a statement.

Among the actions taken are protecting garbage containers to prevent access to wild boars or capturing some of these animals.

In two years, the number of captured animals by local police has fallen from 292 to 92.

Why are there so many boars?

While there are many factors behind this exponential growth, from them breeding with abandoned Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs to them no longer having any natural predators, "the most relevant has been the expansion of irrigated land," says population ecologist and University of Barcelona PhD researcher Jaume Badia. 

In an interview with Catalan News, the scientist explained that this method of farming has become more commonplace despite Catalonia's dry Mediterranean climate. "Because it is more productive, at the same time this is a double edged sword because the farmer gets more production, gets more money, but at the same time the wild boars get more food."

Press play below to listen to our Filling the Sink podcast episode on Catalonia's wild boar problem or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or Spotify.