If you happen to be in Zaragoza during these Pilar festivals, you’ll find the streets full of people, queues to get into almost any venue, and a general festive mood. SEO and other squares were packed with kids (3 million visits reached and 6 total estimated) but what we didn’t expect to see was a wild animal invading this habitat. Really wild: From Saturday, October 17 to early Sunday, October 18, a wild boar crossed almost the entire center of Zaragoza. Heraldo collects testimonies of animals running among children. And El Periodico de Aragon also told how he crossed the road on holiday.
What happened? The first notice to the central operational unit of the local police came at 0:40: according to HOY Aragon, a wild boar assaulted by the river Huerva and the tram track and Jorge Coqui was running along the road. By one o’clock he was already walking through the busy area. Zaragoza police asked pedestrians to be careful. Local police, national police, firefighters and animal rescue and recovery units were mobilized to surround him and take him out of town.
the way According to police sources, the animal went through Aznar Molina, Camino de las Torres, Cesareo Alierta, Plaza de los Sitios, San Clemente Street, Paseo de la Independencia and Coso Street, stopping at Plaza San Felipe, until reaching the Casco Bar area.
And he ended up at Temple Garden, a bar entered through a fairly narrow passage. The assumption is that it could enter from Las Fuentes, although Aragon Digital remembers that it could also come from gardens, river banks or pine forests on the outskirts.
Inside the square. The pig never left town. While escaping he entered a nightlife venue on Temple Street in the Old Town, where he assaulted a woman and slightly injured her. Alberto Samperio, who was inside, told HOY Aragón that he first thought it was a fallen person and then a dog, until he saw that it was a wild boar and that people were running away in fear. The balance, he says, is “too heavy.”
A hallucination? Not everyone saw it the same way. The animal passed in front of the Hoehl Club, where the legendary DJ Rush (an important figure in the Chicago techno scene) was playing that night. For a long time, some viewers thought it was a hallucination.
Fortunately, and according to police sources, the person in charge of the establishment, with the help of some customers, was able to neutralize the animal. They euthanized him to “avoid greater danger” before officers arrived. FCC Service removed the body with the help of a specific vehicle. It is not known how the death occurred or whether any action will be taken in this regard.
Why do they appear? The incident in Zaragoza is not isolated. El Español, which cites the 2024 government census, said there were 1.2 million wild boars in Spain and the number was expected to double in 2025. The reasons for this are: the abandonment of rural areas, the growth of irrigated crops and high temperatures, which favor breeding.
In Barcelona, the Generalitat planned to sacrifice 12,000 animals to stop African swine fever. Maldita advises experts that when a wild boar detects an available resource in a city, it includes roads and highways in its normal movement.
If you come across one. Better to do nothing: Wild boars are generally not aggressive unless they are injured or feel cornered. It is recommended not to harass them, not to try to catch the baby and to tie or restrain the dog when you walk. At Chaca, the situation changes, because they are the main cause of accidents with wildlife in Spain. 49%, not less: Last year, about 5,300 traffic accidents involving animals were recorded in 2025, 4.5% more than in 2024, and a third of them were wild boars.
It remains to be seen where the wild boar actually entered and why it did not find its way out of the city. It is known about the injured woman, her injuries are minor. The only one who entered the group and gave up first was the poor animal.
Picture | Recreation created from original photos by Heraldo de Aragon using ChatGPT
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