declare

The Xunta will declare a hunting emergency – it will be published this Friday in the Official Gazette of Galicia and it will come into effect this Saturday – to be able to hunt wild boars “without limit” in a total of 248 municipalities, 80% of the town councils and the surface of the Galician community. This provisional decision It will be active until February 25, 2024end of hunting season.

City councils with unlimited wild boar hunting They are grouped into 37 regions: 12 in the province of A Coruña (75 municipalities), 11 in Ourense (87 municipalities), 9 in Lugo (54 municipalities) and five in Pontevedra (32 municipalities).

This exceptional instrument can be taken in the event of danger to livestock and agriculture, in addition to the risk of causing traffic accidents, complementary to regulated hunting to carry out damage control actions. Specimens of both sexes may be captured or killed – primarily adult and sub-adult females of any age – and hunting periods are extended.

The general director of Natural Heritage reported this at a press conference this Wednesday, Belén do Campowho has explained that It is the third time that this hunting emergency has been declared in Galicia –the previous ones were in 2019 and 2021–, a decision that the Xunta has made after having received a total of 4,048 notices (in 012) for damages during the 2022-23 season – from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023 -, 900 more than the previous campaign. 19,000 specimens were also captured, figure that is going up.

One of the issues that has weighed on this decision is also the existing domestic pig census in these regions due to the alert about the possibility of arrival in Spain. from the African pig fish, in addition to taking into account the affected surface and the risk of traffic accidents. He points out that this time is especially sensitive due to the harvesting of corn.

Asked about the existing census of wild boars in Galicia, Do Campo explained that This information is not availablesince it indicates that it is up to the central government to carry it out and has thus committed to doing so at the national level.

ACTIONS

Beatdowns may be used, as well as waiting or waiting modalities. The use of auxiliary means is also authorized – such as optical viewers, electronic detectors of the passage or presence of animals, and grain or fruit feeders placed in damaged crops – to facilitate control. Galicia has a total of 452 tecores.

Additionally, captures of live specimens may be carried out in non-hunting areas using capturers, and even, if this does not work, You can act with the waiting or day or night waiting mode.with mandatory report from territorial headquarters.

There will be 134 hunting days in the 2023-24 season, which is 45.6% more than in 2017-18.

REPROACHES TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF A CORUÑA

For her part, Belén do Campo has stressed that she understands that the municipalities “are concerned” and remembers that They can request measures in the event of the appearance of wild boars in urban areaswho carry out “night raids, many of them.”

Remember that there has been talk with the Galician Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (Fegamp) to appeal to the town councils that “they have to control the weeds.” Here, has referred to the case of the City Council of A Coruña “with a quantity of weeds” on land that is not just rustic, “that is developable.”

It also asks the population to do not approach these animals and carry out a garbage control in containers so as not to leave food available to wild boars. The Xunta highlights that it has invested 10 million euros in preventing and alleviating the damage caused by this animal since 2016.

LIST OF 37 COUNTRIES

The list of 37 districts in which a hunting emergency is declared is next. Province of A Coruña: Arzúa, Betanzos, A Coruña, Eume, Ferrol, Ortegal, Santiago, Barbanza, Bergantiños, Noia, Ordes and O Sar.

Province of Ourense: Allariz-Maceda, O Carballiño, A Limia, Ourense, O Ribeiro, Terra de Caldelas, Terra de Celanova, Terra de Trives, Valdeorras, Verín and Viana.

Province of Lugo: Os Ancares, Chantada, Lugo, A Mariña Central, A Mariña Occidental, A Mariña Oriental, Sarria, Terra Chá and Terra de Lemos.

And the province of Pontevedra: Deza, Tabeirós-Terra de Montes, O Condado, Pontevedra and Vigo.