On February 17, the Hérault prefecture closed the A750 motorway for a good two hours near Montpellier. Due to the presence of a horde of wild boars on the tracks. If this is the first time that these animals have caused such a mess, coming across them no longer surprises anyone in the metropolis. For several months, videos of wild boars taking a short walk in town have abounded on social networks.
“It proliferates, that’s for sure! “says a resident of the Martelle district, in Montpellier, whose garden has been visited several times by wild boars in recent years. “Since then, I have strengthened my fences,” he continues. But all my neighbors see it. And we see traces everywhere. I live very close to the future Agriparc des Bouisses, which is really overrun with wild boars. We see them at night when we drive around. “Last season, no less than 800 wild boars were taken by hunters in the metropolis. At the Lunaret zoo, several dozen have recently been captured.
“They are hunted everywhere, except in Montpellier! »
Wild boars in Montpellier are nothing new. But, for Laurent Jaoul (without label), the mayor of Saint-Brès, a village of the metropolis, there is no doubt: this recent proliferation, likely in particular to cause road accidents, is the consequence of the termination of the conventions that allowed associations to hunt on communal lands, in the city center. It was during the winter of 2021.
“When Coralie Mantion [la vice-présidente EELV de la métropole de Montpellier chargée de ce dossier] took this decision, I was the first to denounce it, scolds Laurent Jaoul. And what had to happen, happened. Today we have a very large overpopulation of wild boars in the metropolis, in particular in Montpellier. They are hunted everywhere except here. Me, I would do like them if I were in their place! I will take refuge in Montpellier. “There is only one solution to stem this phenomenon, “the metropolis must repeal this decree, which has no reason to be! “, confides the chosen one.
“It’s not unifactorial, it’s multifactorial”
City services, requested by 20 minutes, refute this analysis. The town hall indicates that the boar was not hunted on the sectors where the shots are now prohibited. The profusion of wild pigs in Montpellier, “it’s not unifactorial, it’s multifactorial”, confides, for his part, Vincent Tarbouriech, the head of service of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) in Hérault . “It’s not a political decision. [seule] which makes the presence of wild boars exploded. All the more so, he notes, that “there are no structured hunting societies in Montpellier”.
But then, why are there so many wild boars in the area? “With the decline of pastoralism, changes in the biotope, etc., brushwood is coming to the edge of towns, explains Max Alliès, president of the Federation of Hérault hunters. And boars, that suits them perfectly. What they need is something to eat, drink and hide. Global warming also has something to do with it. “In the past, when the female had five young, with the cold and the lack of food, there were often three or four who died, explains the hunter. Today, almost all of them survive. In addition, reproduction has increased. »
A scourge inherent in “all big cities”
And above all, if this species, whose adaptability is exceptional, swarms in the city, it is “because we, the hunters, we do not go there, of course”, continues Max Alliès. “They don’t have the pressure we put on them elsewhere. “This problem, notes the boss of the hunters, exists besides “in all the big cities of Europe”.
According to Max Alliès, the hunters will soon organize an operation to push the city boars back to uninhabited areas, where they can be captured. In addition, hunters from Hérault and the CNRS are starting a study to understand, by following them using GPS chips, where wild boars like to take refuge around Montpellier. “It will allow us, for example, to say to the town hall “Be careful, this wasteland is a 4-star hotel for wild boars! “says Max Alliès.