Wild

The University of Córdoba has found a pesticide in the eggs of up to 14 different wild birds. The only problem is that it has been banned since the 70s.

by

One has the intuitive idea that within each egg lies the promise of a story that is just beginning. But it’s a lie. Nature is amazing and elusive and blind and cruel: many eggs, in fact, never even hatch; They end up lost in the countryside or as food for scavengers. For this reason, one day, a group of researchers from the University of Córdoba They decided to collect them and analyze them as what they are: capsules that summarize the chemical memory of the place where they were placed. They collected eggs from bearded vultures, red kites, gray teals and many other species. And inside found everything: from veterinary drugs to heavy metals to all types of pesticides, pesticides and fungicides. Among them were traces of DDT, the organochlorine that we banned in agriculture in the 70s (and could no longer be used as an insecticide in 1994). Curiously, this is not the most worrying thing. What does an egg hide? An egg, as I said, is a photograph of the environment. What accumulates in each bird’s body turns out to be a fairly accurate reflection of what it eats, what it drinks, and where it spends its day. The entire trophic chain is hidden inside each egg. Therefore, when we approach them as the UCO has donewe are not talking about bird problems… we are looking at the chemistry of an entire territory in which we are also. And what have we seen? The most striking thing is not, in fact, DDT (or DDE, its main derivative). Although it is curious that there is a pesticide banned decades ago floating around the environment, it is almost expected: it is what toxicology predicts and why it was ultimately banned. The most interesting thing about the UCO’s work is that it allows us to see, at a single glance, the reality of the pollution with which our mountain coexists. The AGR-125 Veterinary Toxicology group and the Center for Analysis and Diagnosis of Wildlife of Andalusia they used the eggs as ‘non-invasive matrices’ and their data are a canvas that covers many compounds, many birds and a lot of time. There we have found, along with the remains of DDT, commonly used pesticides and fungicides, persistent exposure to endocrine disruptors, heavy metals (such as lead, mercury and cadmium) and, in two bearded vulture eggs, veterinary drugs. And now what? Little, really. The history of DDT shows how difficult it is to work with these realities. As I said, it was banned in agriculture in the 70s, but it remained as an insecticide until 94 and, in fact, It continued to be manufactured (a derivative) in Monzón until 2008. The world of pesticides is a rabbit hole from which rural society never emerges unscathed. Besides, as the authors point outthe concentrations they have found are low. This means that, although we are concerned about the long-term effects, it is very difficult to take extra measures to control the exposure of these birds to these compounds. Luckily, as I also said, this work opens a new door for us to understand what is happening in the countryside and in the mountains. And that, believe me, is already a lot. Image | Kishan Upadhyay In Xataka | We have a problem with pesticides in agriculture. And a bigger one with the panic they generate

“It is not wild boars that cross our roads; it is our roads that cross their habitats”

by

In 1959, the biologist Jane Goodall documented how newly opened roads in East Africa altered ancestral routes displacement of primates and other mammals, forcing them to change movement and feeding patterns. Decades later, that early observation has become one of the great certainties of modern ecology: a road never divides just one landscape. The city as an invisible barrier. Modern cities are often thought of as perfect machines for moving people: cars, subways, scooters, roads and avenues designed to optimize each human journey. But that logic has a hidden cost. Under that network of asphalt and glass, thousands of animals coexist in an environment that for them functions as a permanent trap. Urban mobility, so efficient for us, becomes for wildlife a territory full of obstacles, noise and death points that alter their daily lives and reduce their living space. The noise that forces change. One of the deepest impacts is the acoustic. Many birds depend on song to defend territory, find a mate or communicate, but the constant noise Traffic has forced many species to change their behavior. Some raise their pitch, others advance their songs at dawn and others they just disappear. Adapting has a price: more energy expenditure, less reproductive efficiency and constant stress that breaks balances built over thousands of years. Glass, cars and silent deaths. They counted on a Vanguard report that the deadliest threat is often not even seen. Glass surfaces, transparent screens and illuminated infrastructure cause thousands of bird collisions each year. Robins, chiffchaffs and thrushes are among the most affected speciestrapped by an architecture that to the human eye is neutral, but for them it is an invisible trap. Added to this is road traffic, which turns secondary roads and urban roads into authentic corridors of mortality, especially for amphibians during their migrations. They are not the ones who invade. Here comes the idea that summarizes the true change of outlook. As the ecologist states Joan Pino in the middle“it is not wild boars or roe deer that cross our roads; it is our roads that cross their habitats.” The phrase dismantles a widespread perception: that fauna breaks into human spaces. The reality is the inverse. For decades we have fragmented forests, natural corridors and passageways with roads, train tracks and housing estates. When a wild boar appears on a highway or a roe deer in a district, is not invading anything; He is trying to move through a territory that was always his. The price of cutting up nature. That cut has measurable consequences. In Catalonia, accidents with wildlife have been doubled in the last decade, already exceeding several thousand a year. In that sense, it is not only a question of road safety, but a sign that ecological connectivity is failing. Spaces like Collseroladespite their proximity to large green areas, are becoming increasingly isolated due to traffic density and the proliferation of infrastructure. Physical distance matters less than the hostility of the middle ground. Rethinking the shared city. It is possible that the solution will not only involve building isolated wildlife crossings, although they remain essential. The challenge is much broader: design permeable territories where biodiversity can move without encountering lethal barriers every few hundred meters. Glazing adapted for birds, less aggressive lighting for bats, green corridors and less private traffic are part of this new logic. From this prism, the city of the 21st century can no longer be thought of as an exclusively human space, it will have to be understood, increasingly, as a shared ecosystem where moving does not imply expelling or silencing the rest of the invisible neighbors. Image | x In Xataka | In Spain we are putting GPS on wild boars to follow their wanderings. And we are discovering surprising things In Xataka | An “enemy” is invading the United Kingdom on a large scale and it is one of the most intelligent it has faced: the octopus

Every time we have placed a GPS on wild boars they have surprised us. The last one in Spain has been no exception

by

A team of researchers who followed wild boars with GPS in several European cities discovered something unexpected: Animals did not necessarily avoid human presence, but rather learned to live with it by modifying their schedules and behaviors until they became practically invisible. Scientists went so far as to describe this ability as one of the secrets to their success in environments where, in theory, they should feel more threatened. What each GPS reveals. The truth is that researchers have spent years placing GPS collars to wild boars to better understand how they live, move and survive in increasingly humanized landscapes. The striking thing is that each new follow-up seems to dismantle some preconceived idea. In some cases they have discovered unexpected routes, in others a constant presence near human activities and, recentlya behavior that perplexed even experts with decades of experience. Far from hiding in the most closed and dense shelters, some specimens have developed much more subtle strategies to go unnoticed: remaining motionless in places that are apparently not suitable for hiding and trusting in their ability to blend in with the environment. The wild boar that went viral. One of the most surprising cases was that of a young French wild boar named Phiphi. For almost two years, a GPS collar allowed us to follow each of its movements and revealed that the animal frequently used open areas to restsomething that contradicts the traditional image of the wild boar taking refuge in the densest vegetation. He often lay next to a few ferns or under the minimal protection of an isolated tree in the middle of a clearing. The strategy seemed simple but effective: stay completely still and take advantage of the natural camouflage to practically become part of the landscape. Even when her necklace disappeared for weeks and was later found by hunters, the discovery occurred again in an open area, reinforcing the idea that his success consisted precisely in hiding where no one expected to look for him. Movements of an adult wild boar marked with a GPS collar in the surroundings of a pig farm over the course of a week, evidencing the constant use of the immediate surroundings of the livestock facilities The invisible visitors. He latest scientific work By placing GPS on the animals, he has discovered something that not even the ranchers could have imagined. The studies carried out in Spain by IREC researchers They placed GPS on wild boars in Aragon, Catalonia and Murcia to analyze the risk of transmission of African Swine Fever. The results showed that these animals usually frequent the surroundings of intensive pig farms. without attracting attention of the ranchers. Signs of wild boar activity were detected in nearly half of the farms analyzed, even though many officials claimed not having seen any. The technology showed that the animals visited slurry ponds, feeding areas and other sensitive points discreetly and constantly, revealing a reality completely different from the perception of those who work daily in these facilities. A greater health risk than it seemed. The finding has important implications because the main danger does not lie in direct contact between wild boars and pigs, something relatively rare in intensive farms. The problem arises through indirect connections. Vehicles, clothing, tools or materials can act as a bridge between the environment used by wild boars and farms. The silent presence of these animals in the vicinity multiplies the opportunities for the transmission of diseases such as African swine fevera particularly worrying threat for a country that leads European pork production. The birth of a new tool. All this information has been used to develop the first scientific protocol specific external biosecurity against African Swine Fever in intensive pig farms. Unlike traditional approaches based on general recommendations, the new system analyzes each farm individually, studies its environment, evaluates its weak points and proposes measures adapted to the real risk. The objective is to move from theoretical protection to prevention based on specific data obtained in the field, incorporating for the first time the real behavior of wild boars into the health defense strategy. A species that continues to keep secrets. The common lesson that unites all these studies The fact is that the wild boar continues to surprise those who think they know it well. GPS has shown that it can be hidden in unexpected placesmove around livestock farms without being detected and exploit small vulnerabilities in the human landscape with remarkable effectiveness. Each new monitoring provides information that forces us to review what was taken for granted about the species. And if these works show anything, it is that a good part of the wild boar’s success lies precisely in its ability to be very close to us without us barely noticing its presence. Image | PXHere, A. Savin In Xataka | Neither drones nor snipers: wild boar hunters in Barcelona have a simpler natural and home remedy In Xataka | Putin has become obsessed with eternal life. And that’s why he has scientists experimenting with organs in pigs

If the question is whether we can delay aging, Russia has an unusual plan with the “cousin” of the wild boar and humans

by

In 1928, a Soviet scientist convinced that young blood could rejuvenate the body exchanged his own with that of a university student. The experiment turned the student into a survivor and the researcher into a of the first victims of the modern pursuit of longevity. The great Russian bet. If the question is whether aging can be delayed, Russia has decided to respond with an initiative of extraordinary dimensions. Under the direct impulse of Vladimir Putin, the weekend counted the wall street journal that the Kremlin has made longevity a national priority through a program valued at about $26 billion that seeks to develop technologies capable of prolonging human life and combating age-related deterioration. What for many Western leaders and businessmen remains a private bet financed by technological fortunes, in Russia has become a state strategy which combines genetic research, organ printing, xenotransplantation and other experimental technologies with the promise of saving hundreds of thousands of lives before the end of the decade. New organs for aging bodies. One of the most ambitious ideas of the project consists of progressively replace the defective parts of the human body as if it were a complex machine. It we have told before and Putin himself even commented publicly on the possibility of achieving a kind of practical immortality through the continuous replacement of damaged organs. To get closer to that goal, Russian scientists are working on two main lines: three-dimensional bioprinting of living tissues and the growth of human organs inside minipigs, a variety of pork considered especially compatible for this type of research. The stated goal is to achieve functional transplants of laboratory-produced organs by 2030, a goal that, if achieved, would represent one of the most important biomedical advances of the century. Genes, tissues and pigs at the service of longevity. The program also includes the development of gene therapies aimed at slowing down cellular aging. According to Russian authorities, these treatments represent some of the most promising tools to combat the biological wear and tear that accompanies the passing of the years. At the same time, researchers they claim having managed to print human cartilage and a mouse thyroid gland using bioprinting techniques, preliminary steps towards much more complex structures. The combination of Genetic engineering, organs grown in animals and the manufacture of artificial tissues paints a vision in which medicine stops limiting itself to repairing damage and begins to replace entire components of the organism. Putin’s daughter and the architects of the project. Behind this strategy appear some of the most influential figures of the presidential circle. Among them stands out Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s daughter and an endocrinologist linked to various state genetics programs, as well as the physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the historic Kurchatov Institute and one of the Kremlin’s main scientific ideologues. Kovalchuk holds that humanity is approaching an era in which organs can be routinely repaired or replaced, prolonging life for increasingly longer periods. For its defenders, aging will no longer be seen as an inevitable destiny and will begin to be treated as a technical problem susceptible to scientific intervention. Between cutting-edge science and community doubts. However, the program’s promises are far from to generate consensus. Many researchers they point out that much of the progress announced by Russia has barely been published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. Some scientists who participated in the early stages of these investigations hold that there is a great distance between the proclaimed objectives and the results actually demonstrated. International sanctions, scientific isolation derived from the war in Ukraine and the difficulty of collaborating with Western centers also limit the capacity Russian to validate many of these projects. For critics, some of the statements made by the authorities should be interpreted more as aspirations for the future than as technologies close to becoming a reality. Personal obsession turned into state policy. Putin’s fascination with longevity it’s not new. For years he has cultivated a public image associated with physical strength through exhibitions Carefully constructed for sporting activity, hunting or outdoor adventures. At the same time, their behavior during the pandemic showed a extreme concern due to illness and physical deterioration, with strict quarantines, disinfection protocols and isolation measures that attracted the attention of the entire world. At 73 years old, also surrounded by an aging political and economic elite, the fight against the passage of time seems to have become more than a personal curiosity: it is part of a strategic vision shared by much of the Russian leadership environment. The long Russian tradition. The current project does not come out of nowhere either. Russia and previously the Soviet Union have historically shown a recurring fascination for research aimed at prolonging human life. Since the experiments with rejuvenating blood transfusions carried out by Alexander Bogdanov in the twenties until the theories of Oleksandr Bogomolets Regarding a life expectancy of 150 years supported by Stalin, different generations of Soviet and Russian leaders have pursued the idea of ​​overcoming aging. Paradoxically, many of those pioneers they died long before to reach the extraordinary ages they defended. A race against an uncomfortable demographic reality. The bet is even more striking because it takes place in a country that continues to suffer some of the worst mortality indicators of the developed world. Male life expectancy in Russia He is currently around 68 years, well below that of the United States or Western Europe. In this context, the gigantic longevity program promoted by Putin it reflects both a scientific ambition and a national need. The question is whether printed organs, genetic treatments and minipigs capable of hosting future transplants will bring Russia closer to that vision of a increasingly longer life or if they will end up joining the long list of projects that promised to defeat aging and ended up crashing into a biological reality much more difficult to defeat. Image | IToldYa, Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation, Picryl In Xataka | We knew that living … Read more

an old trick to know what time of night wild boars appear

by

In the Middle Ages, tracking a wild boar was such a valuable skill that some nobles they spent whole days to interpret footprints, disturbed mud and almost invisible signs to find out where the animal had spent the night. In fact, the great wild boar hunts depended much more than reading the terrain than force or weapons, a tradition that survived for centuries even after the emergence of more advanced technologies. The trick that hunters of yesteryear used. Long before camera traps or drones existed, hunters resorted to simple and ingenious solutions to find out what time wild boars appeared. One of the most curious methods consisted of connect an alarm clock to a fishing line placed next to a bait station. When the animal moved a stone or touched the line while eating, the battery jumped and the clock stopped, recording the exact time of visit. The system had limitations and could fail due to rain, other animals or simple mechanical errors, but it reflects the extent to which knowing the habits of the wild boar has always been valuable information for those who lived with this species. A very adaptable animal. The obsession with understanding the wild boar has a simple explanation: it is one of the mammals most adaptable in Europe. Its varied diet, intelligence and high reproductive capacity allow it to thrive in forests, crops, marshes and even environments close to cities. This ease of taking advantage of any available resource has driven the growth of their populations during the last decades and has turned the species into a constant challenge for wildlife managers, farmers, conservationists and hunters. When population control disappears. The increase in specimens is especially visible in some protected areas where hunting activity was eliminated or significantly reduced. The ban on hunting in national parks was presented as a victory for conservation, but the passage of time has revealed that the absence of regulatory mechanisms also can cause problems. The debate, therefore, no longer revolves solely around the protection of animals, but about how to prevent a particularly successful species from altering the balance of the ecosystem. The alarm in Doñana. He most striking case is occurring in the Doñana National Park in Spain. Organizations such as Ecologistas en Acción and SEO/BirdLife have alerted that nest predation by wild boars is affecting the reproductive success of protected species such as the common blackbird and purple heron. The situation is especially striking because some of the groups that defended the elimination of hunting in these spaces are now those who warn of the effects of an increasingly abundant wild boar population. No nests and threatened species. The damage does not only affect those birds. In various areas of the marsh, wild boars have entered colonies of breeding and have destroyed eggs and chicks of species such as the slender-billed gull, the black-winged stilt, the white-faced vent or the pratincole. The ability of the wild boar to locate food and taking advantage of any opportunity makes these nesting areas especially vulnerable targets. Images of severely damaged colonies have reopened a debate that seemed closed about how to manage certain wildlife populations. Nature does not understand ideologies. Beyond the crossed accusations between conservationists and representatives of the hunting world, the Doñana episode has put an uncomfortable question on the table: managing wildlife requires practical decisions in addition to conservation principles. Hence the old alarm clock connected to a fishing line symbolized the effort to understand an animal that is difficult to observe. Today the tools are much more sophisticatedbut the challenge remains the same. The better we know the wild boar, the more evident it becomes that its extraordinary ability to thrive can become a problem when the mechanisms capable of maintaining balance with the rest of the ecosystem disappear. Image | PXHereRichard Bartz In Xataka | Neither drones nor snipers: wild boar hunters in Barcelona have a simpler natural and home remedy In Xataka | The technological war that we see in Ukraine has an unexpected replica in Barcelona: this time the enemy is thousands of wild boars

How many Hz will the monitors go up to? LG has a wild new answer: 1000 Hz

by

Carefully choose the monitor The one we accompany our gaming team with is more important than it seems. And be careful, because there are so many specifications to look at when choosing one or the other that finding the right one can be quite an odyssey. Although if we are players of competitive titles, there is one detail to take into account above the others: the refresh rate. Here the choice is clear: the more hertz, the better. AND LG breaks the mold with its new 1,000 Hz monitor. With a 24.5-inch 1080p panel perfect for competitive gaming The UltraGear family of LG monitors will soon grow with a new member who stands out for its monstrous amount of hertz. He UltraGear 25G590Bwhich comes with a 24.5-inch panel with Full HD resolution and 1,000 Hz. It should be noted that it is a native Full HD, compared to other monitors that drop from that resolution to, for example, 720p, to achieve higher refresh rates. This translates into a safe bet for enthusiastic players of PvP titles (player vs player) who want to take the gaming experience to a new level and, in addition, achieve a real competitive advantage: the more hertz, the more FPS they can take advantage of and less latency (or input lag) experience. In other words: faster frame rates, faster actions and an advantage over players with “slower” monitors. Of course, we must bear in mind that to fully squeeze those 1,000 Hz we need a high-end team that offers the highest possible number of frames per second. Desktop (or laptop) configurations with high-end graphics and processors up to the task that, by adjusting the graphic options in video games, comfortably exceed 240, 360 FPS and even more. Keep an eye on the price, yes. For now, We do not know the official arrival date to Spain or how long it will take. (although, according to LG, during the second half of 2026 it will land in several markets to later reach the rest of the world). But we imagine that it won’t be cheap, precisely. if we take into account what other models with high hertz rates cost. Like this AOC 1080p 610 Hz that around 800 euros on Amazon. Or this other MSI, which ups the ante to Quad HD (but drops to 500 Hz), in the same price range. Other gaming monitors with very high refresh rates The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | LG In Xataka | This is the gaming tower that I would buy. The computers with the best quality-price ratio for gaming recommended by Xataka In Xataka | Liquid cooling or air cooler? What to choose so that your CPU doesn’t smoke without having to spend a fortune

No drones, no snipers. Wild boar hunters in Barcelona have a simpler natural remedy: a homemade recipe

by

In 2022, a wild boar broke in on a terrace in Cadaqués and took several bags of food in front of dozens of tourists who recorded it with their cell phones while the animal walked between tables as if it had been living there for years. For many residents it was the definitive confirmation that wild boars were no longer occasionally entering the cities: they were beginning to behave like any other inhabitant. Barcelona and the impossible war. It we count a few days ago. Barcelona has been trying for years to contain the expansion of wild boars with health campaigns, population controls, forest surveillance and increasingly sophisticated protocols. However, the animals they keep moving forward street by street from Collserola to the urban heart of the city. The last episode has been especially symbolic: a specimen appeared calmly rummaging through garbage containers on Casanova Street, crossing the street for the first time. psychological frontier of the Gran Via and approaching the Raval. The image perfectly summarizes the underlying problem. While administrations and technicians deploy complex devices to control African swine fever and empty entire forest areas, wild boars continue to enter Barcelona attracted by something much more basic: easy food, accumulated garbage and urban waste converted into a permanent night buffet. The city as a new wild ecosystem. He Eixample case It reflects the extent to which the wild boar has stopped behaving like a strictly forest animal. Neighbors in the area had been reporting saturated containers for weeks, leftover food scattered on the street and a constant accumulation of dirt that attracted rats and other pests. The wild boar simply ended up occupying the last step of that urban food chain. The paradox is that, despite the thousands of copies captured and slaughtered around Collserola to contain swine feverthe city continues to offer exactly what these animals need to lose their fear of the human environment: easy access to food and the absence of predators. The result is a species increasingly accustomed to traffic, lights and densely populated neighborhoods, capable of crossing half of Barcelona during the early hours of the morning with absolute normality. The real secret remains the smell. The most striking thing is that, while Barcelona deploys health protocols, forest controls and institutional campaigns, many hunters have been using methods for years. much more rudimentary to attract wild boars. He viral success of homemade recipes based on anise, fermented corn, sugary soft drinks or sweet mixtures demonstrates the extent to which the animal’s behavior continues to be guided by extremely simple impulses. The strong smell of anise sprayed on cereal or the acidic aroma of fermentation act like a magnet for wild boars, which quickly locate any easy caloric source. This logic also explains what is happening in Barcelona: in the end, technology matters less than the ability to control access to organic waste. the city can deploy surveillance, sanitary sacrifices and mobility restrictions, but as long as there are points where garbage overflows and waste accumulates, it will continue to offer exactly the same stimulus as those improvised feedlots used in the mountains. Fauna altering a big city. I counted the weekend The World that the expansion of the problem is already beginning to have consequences that go far beyond neighborhood coexistence. The outbreak of African swine fever detected in Catalan wild boars has forced sanitary restrictions to be activated that have even ended up affecting the filming of large international productions. the movie The Last Druidstarring Russell Crowe, had to paralyze part of its production in Sant Cugat due to the limitations imposed in forest areas near the health outbreak. The episode illustrates the extent to which wild boar overpopulation has ceased to be a strictly environmental or agricultural problem and has become in a phenomenon with economic, urban and logistical impact. What began as the occasional presence of animals in the limits of Collserola is even beginning to interfere with industrial and cultural activities linked to the territory. Increasingly difficult coexistence. The big problem for Barcelona is that everything indicates that this situation It’s not temporary. Wild boars adapt extremely quickly to urban environments because they find constant food, less hunting pressure and relatively safe refuges in parks, open fields and peripheral green areas. At the same time, cities generate enormous amounts of accessible waste every night. The combination is explosive: animals increasingly trusting entering neighborhoods densely populated while administrations try to balance health control, animal welfare and citizen security. And there appears the great irony of the entire story. After massive campaigns, forestry devices and complex protocols, the battle against wild boars continues to revolve around something very ancient and elemental: the smell of food. Image | x In Xataka | The technological war that we see in Ukraine has an unexpected replica in Barcelona: this time the enemy is thousands of wild boars In Xataka | Lead has its days numbered in hunting. The problem is that no one really knows how to replace it.

one where snipers and drones are eliminating thousands of wild boars

by

In November 2025, the Generalitat came to deploy to the UME, drones and police controls around Collserola after finding dozens of dead wild boars near Barcelona. What started with two infected animals ended up turning the city’s forests into a huge crawl area sanitary. A city at war. For years, wild boars were a growing nuisance in Barcelona and its metropolitan area: animals that rummaged through garbage, crossed roads or appeared in housing estates next to Collserola. In 2026 the situation completely changed scale. The detection of African swine fever turned part of Catalonia into a huge health perimeter where the Generalitat began to unfold a response typical of an emergency operation. Ground zero around Cerdanyola was surrounded by fencesclosures of wildlife passages, collective traps and access restrictions. More than 1,900 troops work on the ground while drones, canine units and specialized companies “comb” forests and peri-urban areas looking for corpses, sick animals and groups of wild boars. I was counting a few days ago The Country that the political language stopped seeming environmental to approach that of a military campaign: “empty” entire areas, “eradicate” outbreaks and contain the spread of the virus before it reaches the Catalan pork industry. The massive hunting of thousands of animals. The magnitude of the operation explains to what extent the Generalitat considers the situation a strategic threat. The initial objective was to eliminate between 8,000 and 10,000 wild boars in the 20-kilometer radius around the outbreak detected in November 2025. The figure was later adjusted about 6,000 animals only within the critical perimeter, while the general plan aims to reduce the entire wild boar population in Catalonia by half, estimated between 120,000 and 180,000 specimens. Since January they have already sacrificed more than 26,000 animals throughout the community. In some points of the so-called “ground zero” there would be barely twenty wild boars left after months of continuous captures. He deployment includes hundreds of traps, Pig Brig nets, thermal visors, closures of wildlife crossings and constant controls to prevent animals from crossing natural corridors around Barcelona. Snipers, hunters and wildlife control companies. One of the most striking elements of the entire crisis is how hunters have gone from being a socially questioned figure to becoming in essential piece of the operation. Some act practically as specialized shooters in forested and peri-urban areas where drones perform poorly and animals move near inhabited areas. Many describe night shifts with thermal visorshigh-capacity traps and rifles prepared to shoot any specimen that appears in front of the viewer. The Generalitat has even started financing fuel, veterinary assistance for capture dogs and specialized material. At the same time, the Government has hired companies accustomed to operating in urban and peri-urban environments, especially in Collserola and other spaces where wild boars have become accustomed to coexisting with the city. The result is increasingly reminiscent of a permanent campaign wildlife control deployed around a large European capital. A gigantic economic threat. Behind this offensive there is a fear much greater than the overpopulation of wild boars itself. Catalonia concentrates an essential part of the pork industry Spanish and the expansion of African swine fever could cause a multimillion-dollar blow to exports, farms and international markets. Japan and the Philippines already restrictions have been applied and the Government fears losing health credibility if the virus escapes the controlled perimeter. That is why the institutional discourse insists so much in “biosecurity” and the need to act extremely quickly. The Catalan administration defends that it is not an ideological or political decision, but rather a a mandatory response to avoid an economic collapse. The pressure is so high that a debate has even been opened about accelerating the marketing of game meat to absorb the tens of thousands of catches and keep the system economically viable. The battle inside Collserola. The big problem for the authorities is that the war against wild boars is taking place in one of the environments most complex possible: a huge metropolitan area of ​​four million inhabitants. Collserola functions as a natural refuge and motion runner for animals accustomed for years to living next to housing estates, roads and peripheral neighborhoods. Some areas are so wooded that not even drones They allow us to accurately calculate how many copies remain. Technicians recognize that total control is extremely difficult and that is why restrictions on mobility and access to the natural environment remain in force months after the start of the crisis. Meanwhile, they continue new positives appearing week after week, fueling the feeling that the Generalitat is in a race against time to prevent the outbreak from spreading definitively beyond Barcelona. The city-nature relationship. The crisis has also left an uncomfortable image about how the relationship between big cities and wildlife has changed. For years, Barcelona lived with a growing population of wild boars that learned to take advantage of garbage, parks and urbanized areas. The animals lost their fear of people while administrations tried to manage the problem without resorting to massive slaughter campaigns. The african swine fever It broke that balance suddenly. Now the city lives surrounded by controls, restrictions and capture operations where police, hunters, veterinarians and wildlife specialists participate. The scene of teams searching forests with dogs, nets and rifles a few kilometers from densely populated areas has ended up projecting a strange sensation: that of a great European capital converted into the epicenter of a health war against thousands of wild animals. Image | Pexels In Xataka | The problem is not that 100 wild boars in Barcelona have swine fever. The problem is that we don’t know how it got there. In Xataka | The Argentine sea hid one of the most disturbing animals in the world: an 11-meter-long “ghost jellyfish”

We had been wondering for years why the Chernobyl wild boars were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident

by

Four decades after the accident at the nuclear power plant located in Prypiat, the animals of Chernobyl they continue generating fascination. These survivors in one of the most contaminated regions in Europe they surprise us in many ways, but if there is an enigmatic species in this place it is the wild boar. One of the most radioactive species from Chernobyl. Solving the mystery. In 2023 it appeared a new trackrevealed by a team of researchers, about these animals: we finally know why their radioactivity is greater than that of other species. The answer has less to do with the nuclear accident itself than with something that happened long before. More radioactive? There is very little we still know about the animals of Chernobyl. One of the most curious enigmas was that of wild boars. To understand why we have to talk about one of the most polluting radioactive isotopes, caesium 137 (Cs137). The half-life of this isotope (the time in which half of the atoms we have of the material will have disintegrated) is just over 30 years. The concentration of cesium in the food chain should in principle be reduced even further since the atoms tend to leach into the soil or be carried away by water into rivers. Going down. That is why the level of radioactivity in animals such as deer or roe deer has decreased significantly in the area. Not only has this situation not occurred in wild boar populations: their radiation levels have remained almost constant, that is, the decrease is not even in line with what the semi-disintegration of Cs137 would imply. It is the “wild boar paradox”. Nuclear tests and radioactive truffles. The answer comes from cesium 135. The team that solved this mystery did so by focusing not on the radiation levels but on its origin. They verified that it was this other isotope of cesium that was behind this phenomenon. Cs135 has a much longer half-life, which explains why the reduction had been smaller. This also makes it more difficult to detect the presence of Cs135. As explains the responsible team From the study, each type of nuclear incident has its own “signature.” It is estimated that 90% of the Cs137 present in Europe was released by the Chernobyl accident, but this is not the case for Cs135. The origin of this is 68% in the nuclear tests carried out in the context of the cold war. Just the right depth. The diet of wild boars has also been one of the key factors when it comes to understanding the reason for their radiation levels. These animals feed on a type of truffle (Elaphomyces) that grows in the subsoil, at depths of between 20 and 40 centimeters. As we pointed out before, part of the radioactive cesium It was seeping year after year into the soil of the area. At the rate of a few millimeters a year, cesium (both from nuclear tests and from the accident) has been advancing towards these depths, contaminating these mushrooms, a source of food for wild boars. From Chernobyl to Bavaria. The study that clarified this mystery was carried out by analyzing a population of 48 wild boars in the state of Bavariasouthern Germany. The analysis details were published in the magazine Environmental Science & Technology. In the long term. The results of the study invite us to think that the situation will not change in the short term. That is, it is unlikely that the radioactivity levels of wild boars will begin to decline in the coming years until they are equal to those of other similar animals such as deer or roe deer. The greater radiation present in these animals has made hunters resist their capture. This implies that the populations of these wild boars will go increasing in the future. Perhaps their expansion through central Europe will cause the radiation levels of these animals to decline generation after generation but, from what we have seen, this process could still continue for decades. In Xataka | When Chernobyl exploded in 1986, Spain was freed from the radioactive cloud. AEMET has now discovered that it did it for very little In Xataka | Some Spanish scientists are recreating the Chernobyl accident in Seville. Objective: see how it affects biodiversity Image | Joachim Reddemann / Кирилл Пурин *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

Wolves, bears and wild boars are dividing up the map of Spain and the real battle is between the rural world and the cities

by

Wolves, bears, vultures, cormorants, wild boars, lynxes… When, a few months ago, Christian Gortázar, professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, was asked about Spanish wildlife, his words were tremendously accurate: “the problem is everywhere.” And dozens of species are being redistributed throughout traditional territory while rural and urban society confront each other over something extremely basic: what the hell nature is and what it is for. Why are we talking about this? Complaints from the agricultural sector about wildlife have been with us for years. However, in recent months (and spurred by the African swine fever crisis) the “mismanagement” framework has been gaining weight in public debate. But the truth is that the idea that “there are many animals and no one controls them” is not innocent. It is, in reality, a ‘discursive umbrella’: an idea-force that brings together very heterogeneous demands (the cuts from the future CAP, the fears derived from the Mercosur treatybureaucratic burdens, rising costs, rural identity, etc.). That is the main reason why the political debate does not fit with the scientific one, but not the only one. How to survive the end of the field. Talking about Spain being emptied today is almost obvious: 62% of Spanish municipalities has lost population since the nineties. In Castilla y León and Asturias that figure is around 85%. For the urban population it is only a sociological question, for the rural population it is an existential question. And in that context, the wolf has expanded to the southeast, the bear has doubled its area of ​​influence and the wild boar has sneaked into towns and neighborhoods (causing a complete economic and health earthquake). Regardless of the real effect of conservation measures on the rural world, it is easy for the feeling of general abandonment to curdle into an aversion to this way of seeing the countryside. A legitimate debate. From an ecological point of view, species recovery makes sense (as long as it is done properly). Degraded ecosystems lose the ability to adapt and become much more fragile: recovering species is the simplest and most cost-effective strategy. But we must not forget that these species return to a world completely different from the one they left and that the gaps they left are now occupied by “de facto powers” and realities historically established in the countryside and that still survive. And those powers They maintain that the ‘intervention’ of cities In their world it is counterproductive. The debate, as I say, is legitimate (and even healthy). And then? The real problem is not the discussion about whether the resources allocated to recovery measures would be better invested in other policies. The problem is that in the public debate the data and arguments are missing; and everything has become a partisan quagmire that is very difficult to manage. But the wildlife is still there. And the farmers too. In fact, all the actors who have taken us here are still there. The fundamental question is whether there is a future that can be understood as a solution. Image | Nancy Stapler In Xataka | Wolf hunting throughout Spain depended on a red button that changes its status. And Europe has decided to press it

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.