A beautiful island in Italy is being so overrun by goats that it’s becoming dangerous, causing panic for locals. Alicudi is the westernmost island of the Aeolian Archipelago, also known as the Lipari Islands.
Compared to its bigger sister Lipari, which has an average population of just under 13,000, Alicudi only has an estimated 100 regular residents. They have been slowly overtaken by the local wild goat community, which, at last count, included 600 animals. While tourists visiting the Sicilian island have been fascinated by these bizarre animals roaming around the volcanic atoll, residents have had to cope with the considerable damage they cause.
From ruining dry stone walls of the terraces to devouring protected shrubs and plants across Alicudi’s nature reserve, the wild goats have slowly become a major issue of concern for the locals.
They are also potentially dangerous, as some of the animals have reportedly approached houses to eat cacti, olive trees and caper plants, and obstructed the paths, scaring off hikers..
The goats were originally brought onto the island around 20 years ago by the farmers themselves, but some managed to escape and hid away in the most isolated areas of Alicudi.
Last year, a company was hired to round them up. But, with only rocky foot paths on the mountainous island and lots of brush for goats to hide in, they gave up after a week.
Now, authorities are considering culling the animals. Giovanni Dell’Acqua, a Sicilian rural development official, told The Times: “They eat everything, they are dangerous. I wanted to avoid this but a cull is the only way left and the alternative is the destruction of the island.”
A group of almost 30 local hunters, previously hired by the authorities to shoot wild boar in Sicily, have been training for a goat cull which could start at the end of the tourist season.
Even locals are on-side. Resident Elise Collet said that she would not be happy to see hunters gunning down the goats. “It’s cruel”, she said. “But the goats have eaten everything, so eating them might be part of a natural cycle”.