The Italian island where goats are a bigger threat than its volcano

Times

2 days ago

The hardy inhabitants of Stromboli have stuck it out for centuries, caring for their olive groves and caper plants even though their tiny island is one large, very active volcano rising out of the Mediterranean Sea.
But if lava flows and flying boulders have not deterred them, a new adversary that is said to do far more damage than the volcano is persuading some residents that it is time to leave.
'My family has been here since the 17th century, but if the goats continue to multiply I'm abandoning Stromboli,' said Gianluca Giuffre, a local shopkeeper.
Stromboli is the latest island in the Aeolian chain north of Sicily where man is facing off against wild goats, and the goats are winning. As on neighbouring Alicudi, an expanding army of animals on Stromboli is devouring vegetation, reducing ancient stone terracing to rubble, entering homes and even attacking people.
'I was in my garden when a large herd stormed in looking for something to eat,' said Federico Ascheri, a Stromboli resident. 'A huge goat leading them glowered at me when I tried to scare them off and they charged, knocking me flying.'
His partner, Samira Salhi, added: 'The goats are getting so aggressive they have started fighting each other.'
Hundreds of goats are terrorising the tiny port of Ginostra, which has a permanent population of 40, where Giuffre is leading a campaign to get rid of them.
He said: 'A few got free in the 1990s and as they have bred they have descended from the slopes of the volcano looking for food. You find them in the cemetery, even in the church and my 78-year-old father is scared to leave home.
'They trample the stone terracing, which means the mountain slides down in the rain, and they destroy the paths we use to flee to the port or the helicopter pad during eruptions. They've even damaged the helicopter pad's landing lights.'
During its last major eruption in 2019, Stromboli threw up a 2km ash cloud and spat out lava and scalding rocks, killing a hiker.
But Giuffre said the goats had a worse impact. He said: 'They've eaten caper plants put in by my ancestors and done more damage in three years than the volcano has in centuries.
'The authorities played it down but are now admitting the crisis as locals and tourists get furious and as they realise it could get legal if someone is seriously injured.'
Daniela Simoncini, 78, who has a holiday home on the slopes above Ginostra, said she was waiting to see if any of her 200-year-old olive trees would survive after goats climbed into the branches to chew leaves.
'It's me against herds of 50 goats led by large specimens with 40cm horns,' she said.
Simoncini survived a 2003 eruption when a huge flying rock destroyed the cistern that collected rain water draining from her roof. 'I repaired the cistern, but the problem now is the goats are getting on to the roof and leaving excrement, polluting my water supply,' she said.
Another problem was the number of goat carcasses rotting around her house. She said: 'There have been seven, suggesting they may have a disease, and the smell is terrible.'
Stromboli is catching up with Alicudi, where plans to round up 800 wild goats and ship them off to goat farmers on the Italian mainland failed last year when the animals proved too slippery for goat catchers.
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This autumn, when tourists leave Alicudi, the regional authority will send in hunters to shoot the goats.
Giovanni Dell'Acqua, a Sicilian rural development official, said: 'We will see how it goes in Alicudi where we are aiming to eradicate the goats, then we could move on to Stromboli and do the same thing there.'
He said the emergency was now more important than objections from animal rights groups. 'You can find goat in any butcher's in Italy. This is not a scandal,' he said.