Wild boar are increasingly encroaching on Rome - AFP

Wild boar are now so abundant on the outskirts of Rome that locals are afraid to walk their dogs and take their children to playgrounds, authorities say.

The city’s failure to collect rubbish has left overflowing bins and skips which provide rich pickings for the brawny pigs.

The species has become increasingly bold in and around Rome, as it has in other cities in Europe such as Berlin and Barcelona.

But the sight of boar and their piglets snuffling for food has gone from being a quaint novelty to a downright menace, according to people living on the edge of the city.

Areas like Casal Brunori and Spinaceto, on the southern edge of the capital, are adjacent to countryside and nature reserves where the boar live.

Wild boar in Italy are becoming increasingly urbanised Credit: Giornale di Sicilia

“The wild boar are roaming around parks, outside schools and in public gardens. We’re no longer free to leave our homes," Filippo Cioffi, a residents’ representative, local said.

“We’re living in fear, worried that we are going to be attacked. In the past we had cases of female boar being aggressive towards dogs in order to defend their young, but now they are aggressive towards people as well.”

Earlier this month, a young father pushing his 20-month-old in a pushchair said he was followed and felt threatened by a small herd of wild boar in the area.

“Since 2017 the situation has got much worse and we’ve had no response from the council to our requests for intervention,” said Mr Cioffi.

As the boar proliferate, Rome may have inadvertently come up with a partial solution to the problem – wolves are on the increase too and are increasingly encroaching on the periphery of the city.

Two years ago, it was revealed that a pack of wolves is living just outside Rome, in a nature reserve outside the motorway that encircles the city.

It is now reported that wolves are present in other areas close to the city. The problem is, they appear to have more of a taste for sheep and goats more than they do for wild boar.

Story continues

“The she-wolf is the symbol of Rome, but for a little while now farmers around Rome have not been sleeping well at night,” said Vincenzino Rota, from the farmers’ association Confagricoltura.

Wolves are starting to encroach on farms around Rome, experts say Credit: Reuters

He said wolves have been spotted along the Appian Way, an ancient Roman road that still leads out of the city, as well as in the Castelli Romani, a range of volcanic lakes and hills just to the east of the capital.

“The situation is unsustainable,” said Mr Rota, who added that many of the wolves preying on livestock appeared to be dangerous wolf-dog hybrids. They are considered to have less fear of humans because of the canine element in their genetic makeup.

The increasing presence of wolves was “very dangerous for people too,” said Massimiliano Giansanti, the national president of Confagricoltura.

The latest attack, in which two sheep were killed, happened in a farm “which lies just 10 kilometres from the Campidoglio (Rome’s Renaissance-era town hall) as the crow flies.”