They weigh around 100 kilos, usually go in small herds led by the female, and have become a headache for many municipalities in the north of Madrid. The presence of wild boar in our region has become increasingly common in recent years, so much so that it has returned to the media after this week a couple of copies was recorded at night in the capital's Las Vegas neighborhood Tables and the next day crossing the A-1 at the height of the Manoteras Knot in broad daylight. It is the first time that they are seen inside the capital.

Given this situation, on Thursday, the City Council of the capital asked the Community for permission to capture them, a permit that was granted yesterday with the validity of one year. The Environment Unit of the Municipal Police will be responsible for capturing these specimens, which had not yet been located yesterday, with sleeping pills to control them. Later they will be transferred to one of the animal reception centers. There they will proceed to make the relevant controls and if they are sick they will be sacrificed. According to the Environmental Police, these sighted specimens probably come from the area of ​​El Pardo. As explained yesterday by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the presence of the wild boar in the capital is something that "worries" the Consistory and therefore has contacted the Community to "establish the lines of collaboration."

The presence of the wild boar, especially in summer, is already very frequent in municipalities such as Majadahonda, Las Rozas, Torrelodones, Pozuelo - in the A-6- corridor, and in Algete or San Sebastián de los Reyes - in the corridor of the A-1-. In the latter it is common to see them in the urbanizations near the La Dehesa forest park and the Soto de Viñuelas looking for food and water.

Their presence, according to experts, is increasingly frequent in cities due to urban growth and because within the localities they have opportunities to find food in garbage cans, and to find areas of grasslands and damp areas where they can wallow or look for food and water. The animal has also become accustomed to the presence of man, since he sees that it does not attack him.

In the urbanization Ciudalcampo, which borders San Sebastián and populated with villas with green areas, they have become a headache, especially for the owners of the Race golf club. "There are herds and herds, and the damage they cause to the greens is tremendous," they say. «In summer, they enter the freshness and look for acorns, roots and worms. We have fences but they always find the broken part or where there isn't, ”they say in the club.

"In the urbanizations very close to the countryside we warn the neighbors to close the doors when they go out for a walk because they take advantage of any gap to sneak in," they reveal for their part in the City of Las Rozas, one of the most affected and that dedicates part of its budget, 650,000 euros per year, for the hunting fences that surround rural areas with access to the city. Specifically they have more than 15km of fences in addition to several Canadian steps. According to the calculations of the Consistorio Roceño, there are 12 copies per square kilometer.

From Las Rozas they ask for a regional approach. "In some cases animals can travel 50 kilometers in one day, so we must work in coordination with other municipalities," says David Santos, Councilor for Health and Public Safety. In Majadahonda, after several copies were sighted this summer for several consecutive days, the City Council incorporated the performance of trained shepherd dogs, which were enormously effective, according to the Consistory.

According to the Ministry of Environment of the Community of Madrid, it is probably the time when there are more wild boars in the region of the last 30 years, "since it is estimated that there are between 35,000 and 40,000," explains Felipe Ruza, Deputy Director General of Natural Resources. The capture of the animal in rustic areas depends on the Community, but on municipal land it is the responsibility of the Consistories.

In total, about 6,000 copies were captured (dead or alive) last year. The Community of Madrid allows its hunting with firearms in preserves destined for it and in rustic lands, that border between the city and the field, for security reasons, it is only allowed to hunt them with arches, «a stealthy and effective method». In fact, there is a unit of experts in the art of arrows, known as the Service of Controllers with Wild Species Bow (SCAES), composed of about 50 people and that is dependent on the Madrid Hunting Federation. Among the most used capture methods are trap cages. "We intervene in different ways, controlling populations," says Ruza on wild boars, which last year caused 128 traffic accidents in the region when crossing roads unexpectedly.

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