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ENVIRONMENT

Wild boar that stole German nudist’s laptop ‘may be culled’

A wild boar that went viral after stealing a nudist's laptop by a lake in German capital Berlin last week could be caught up in a local cull, an official said Friday.

Published: 14 August 2020 15:43 CEST
Wild boar that stole German nudist's laptop 'may be culled'
A wild boar and its babies in Springe, Lower Saxony. Photo: DPA

Photos of the female boar and her two young were shared thousands of times on social media after a naked sunbather was snapped unashamedly chasing after them to retrieve his laptop bag.

But a spokesman for the Berlin state forestry office told news agency DPA the boar and her babies could be culled when the hunting season begins in October.

READ ALSO: 'Only in Germany': Wild boar steals laptop from naked Berlin sunbather

They would not be shot immediately because it is the wrong time of the year and also because the piglets are still too small, the spokesman said — but the agency will be keeping an eye on them.

The area around the lake is popular with hunters and it is possible they could be targeted later in the year, he added.

Wild boars are regularly culled by licensed hunters in Berlin and the rest of Germany to keep numbers down and to fend off diseases such as African swine fever.

Every year, 1,000 to 2,000 wild boars are shot in Berlin.

They often venture into residential areas looking for food, as appeared to be the case during the incident last week, and have been known to attack humans.

“Many of us were scared but the wild boars seemed to be peaceful,” Adele Landauer, the Berlin-based life coach who took the pictures, wrote as she shared them on Instagram last week.

“After they ate a pizza from a backpack of a man who was taking a swim in the lake they were looking for a dessert. They found this yellow bag and decided to take it away.”

READ ALSO: WATCH: Wild boar surprises sunbathers by emerging from Baltic Sea

Member comments

  1. This totally reminds me of how in some regions in India, monkeys are revered and a have a protected status because of the Hindu god Hanuman, so they end up having a field day around open markets, treating them like an open buffet and the vendors not being able to do much of anything about it (shooing them away doesn’t really help/count).

    Heh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next animal-theft related article involves a bunch of ants carrying away a picnic basket; they’re very well known for punching above their own “weight” class.

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BUSINESS

Norwegian battery start-up Freyr demands subsidies to complete factory

The Freyr battery start-up has halted construction of its Giga Arctic factory and demanded additional government subsidies, Norway's state broadcaster NRK has reported.

Published: 29 May 2023 12:13 CEST
Norwegian battery start-up Freyr demands subsidies to complete factory

Jan Arve Haugan, the company’s operations director, told the broadcaster that the company would not order any more equipment until Norway’s government committed to further subsidies. 

“We are holding back further orders for prefabricated steel and concrete pending clarification on further progress,” he said. “We are keen to move forward, but we have to respect that there is a political process going on, and we have expectations that words will be put into action.” 

Freyr in April 2019 announced its plans to build the 17 billion kroner Giga Arctic in Mo i Rana, and has so far received 4 billion kroner in loans and loan guarantees from the Norwegian government. It has already started construction and hopes to complete the build by 2024-2025. 

Haugan said that the enormous subsidies for green industry in the Inflation Reduction Act voted through in the US in 2022 had changed the playing field for companies like Freyr, meaning Norway would need to increase the level of subsidies if the project was to be viable. 

Freyr in December announced plans for Giga America, a $1.3bn facility which it plans to build in Coweta, Georgia.   

“What the Americans have done, which is completely exceptional, is to provide very solid support for the renewable industry,” Haugen said. “This changes the framework conditions for a company like Freyr, and we have to take that into account.” 

Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s industry minister, said that the government was looking at what actions to take to counter the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, but said he was unwilling to get drawn into a subsidy battle with the US. 

“The government is working on how to upgrade our instruments and I hope that we will have further clarifications towards the summer,” he said.

“We are not going to imitate the Americans’ subsidy race. We have never competed in Norway to be the cheapest or most heavily subsidised. We have competed on competence, Norwegian labour, clean and affordable energy and being world champions in high productivity.” 

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