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Diari de Catalunya

Year-round wild boar hunting raises doubts about effectiveness in Alt Empordà

Experts and administrations question whether lifting the hunting ban will be enough to control the population without accurate censuses.

Agricultural field showing signs of damage caused by wild boars, with a forest in the background, illustrating the overpopulation problem.
IA

Agricultural field showing signs of damage caused by wild boars, with a forest in the background, illustrating the overpopulation problem.

The Catalan Government is considering allowing wild boar hunting year-round in Catalonia, a measure that generates skepticism among experts and hunters in Alt Empordà and Garrotxa, areas with high specimen density.

Wild boar density in Alt Empordà reached 22.8 specimens per square kilometer during the 2022-2023 season, one of the highest figures in Catalonia. Despite a slight decrease, the rebound to more than 14 specimens in 2024-2025 maintains the alert for agricultural damage and road safety. In Garrotxa, the density is around 9.5 wild boars/km².
Experts and rural agents point out that the recent population decline is not solely due to hunting efforts, but mainly to environmental factors. Persistent drought and lack of food, such as acorns, have influenced the decline more significantly, reducing the species' reproductive and survival capacity.
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"Although hunting can reduce wild boar populations, if other factors influencing the birth rate are not modified, the balance tends to recover quickly."

Josep Maria López · Deputy Director of Hunting
The proposed flexibility, which includes more specific methods like stalking in the spring, is seen as an immediate operational solution. However, the Wild Boar Board has demanded precise and homogeneous censuses from the Government to avoid applying uniform solutions in regions with very different densities, such as Freser-Setcases (6.2 wild boars/km²), where the problem is less severe.

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