but will the sea lions swim with you?

When Tyler went to the Galapagos, I asked him if he was going to swim with the sea lions and he paused, reflected, and said "It's not a question of if I will swim with the sea lions, it's a question of whether the sea lions will swim with me".

And lo, it's the same situation now in Berlin where up to 7000 "wild" pigs have apparently taken residence. The government's official position has shocking historical overtones: gun them down where they stand.

Here's an example:

"One pack (called a "sounder") of boars took to hanging out at a playground in Berlin's posh Dahlem district. The chief sow sunbathed on the warm tarmac of a main road, holding up traffic, while her striped sucklings played with children.

"If one piglet had squealed because a kid had held it wrongly, the sow would have attacked," says Mr. Ehlert. He had police cordon off the playground while hunters gunned down the entire sounder in front of shocked residents."

Nice work there Fritz. If something had happened that didn't, then something else would have happened that didn't so lets just save time and execute them. Booyah!!

However, Mr. Ehlert does back away from total porker-cide, if only for reasons of practicality:

"Hunters have shot over 500 boars in urban areas since April, but boar numbers keep rising. Up to 7,000 now live in the city, Mr. Ehlert estimates. "There is no way that hunting can get rid of them all," he says. "Ultimately we must learn to share the city with the swine."

I guess he better hope the pigs feel the same way!