Build a wall, wild boar will fall: Denmark erects barrier to keep out German pigs

42-mile fence on border with Germany aims to protect pig farms from African swine fever

Emily Schultheisin Berlin

Mon 28 Jan 2019 11.56 GMTLast modified on Tue 29 Jan 2019 17.41 GMT 

The United States isn’t the only country with a border wall controversy these days. However, Denmark’s planned 42-mile (70km) fence along the German border is intended to keep out not people but wild boars, which authorities say threaten to bring disease to Danish pig farms.

Construction on the fence was beginning on Monday along the northern edge of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Danish lawmakers and the country’s environmental agency approved the project last summer, arguing it would help farmers protect their pigs against African swine fever (ASF).

The disease, lethal for pigs, has not yet been spotted in Denmark or Germany but it is common in eastern Europe and there was a small outbreak in Belgium last autumn.

Though the threat of ASF may not sound alarming on its face, pigs and pork production are no joke in Denmark. The country has nearly twice as many pigs as people – it’s home to more than 12 million pigs across 3,000 farms, compared with a human population of just under 6 million – and pig exports account for billions of pounds annually.

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Czech deer still avoid Iron Curtain

The red deer were tracked via GPS-equipped collars that sent data to computers

The Iron Curtain fell 25 years ago, but it seems that nobody told the deer.

A new study has found that a quarter of a century on, red deer on the border between the Czech Republic and old West Germany still do not cross the divide.

After tracking 300 deer, researchers said the animals are intent on maintaining the old boundaries.

One of the scientists involved told the BBC the deer are not ideological, "they are just very conservative in their habits."

During the Cold War, electric fences made the Czech-German boundary impossible to pass.

Czechoslovakia, where the Communists took power in 1948, had three parallel electrified fences, patrolled by heavily armed guards.

Nearly 500 people were killed when they attempted to escape.

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