News in the Silly Season: Flying Rabbits, Violent Cows and Drowning Hedgehogs

The Brits call it the "silly season." In Germany the media call it the Sommerloch, literally "the summer hole."

What they are referring to is the fact that when politicians and businesspeople close up shop and go away for the major European summer holidays, the number of serious news stories tends to diminish -- meaning desperate hacks need to find something else to fill the hole. That could be concocted scandals, minor celebrity gossip or spurious health scares. But the average German journalist's best friend during the Sommerloch is undoubtedly the offbeat animal story.

SPIEGEL ONLINE presents a selection of stories from Germany's news agencies which might not have made the cut in fall, winter or spring.

Party Pigs Live Life In The Fast Lane

A group of young wild boar decided to meet regularly on a certain strip of highway near the city of Böblingen in southwestern Germany. The boar had been having such a good time on Autobahn 81, as the route is known, that they starting coming back day after day. But local police were concerned that the partying porkers could distract drivers and cause car accidents.

Life in the fast lane doesn't come without its disadvantages. And in this case, those disadvantages included a bunch of hunters, tasked by the police to slay the porkers next time they turned up on the motorway.

As part of Sunday's operation, the fast lane was closed and a police helicopter hovered overhead to observe the boar party from above. But not a single swine made an appearance. Meanwhile a traffic jam 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) long had developed. The pig hunt was called off after 15 minutes.

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• Next

• Part 1: Flying Rabbits, Violent Cows and Drowning Hedgehogs
• Part 2: A Very Clean Cat With Eight Lives
• Part 3: The Fox With A Footwear Fetish
• Part 4: Violent Cow Attacks Increase In Summer
• Part 5: Baby Squirrel in Peril
• Part 6: Rabbit Abduction Ends in Tragedy
• Part 7: Sneaky Snakes Go Undercover
• Part 8: Hedgehog Rescue Service