Portugal sees surge in road collisions with wild boar and deer

Road collisions involving wild boar, deer and other ungulates have risen sharply on Portuguese roads managed by Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP). The agency recorded more than 140 incidents in 2025, up from fewer than 20 per year before 2015. Since 2010, IP has logged 856 collisions on its network, 762 of them involving wild boar, according to biologist Graça Garcia, who presented the data at the first "Impacto" seminar in Lousã.

A University of Aveiro project funded by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) counted over 500 wild boar‑related accidents annually across all Portuguese roads in 2019‑2020. Project coordinator Carlos Fonseca told Lusa that the total now exceeds 1,000 collisions per year, with hotspots in the Coimbra and Viseu regions. The seminar outlined plans to improve monitoring of ungulate populations and develop mitigation tools for traffic safety and agriculture, aiming to produce guidance for those affected by the growing wildlife numbers.