Reversible pigs

The idea of “species” is the main unit for representing ecological relations. But what would an ecology look like if we started by tracing its relations from below species threshold? By deploying infraspecies ethnography, I show how, in suburban Barcelona, human and wild boar individuals relate personal, creative ways, how doing so, they also reshape their quotidian ecologies bottom up. Departing species-level imaginaries wildlife managers, residents cope with boars not only as idiosyncratic specimens but reversible beings: pigs that are simultaneously “wild” “tame,” “rural” “urban,” “pest” “neighbor.” Shifting attention between coherent to situated encounters singular unveils weave relations, remake ecologies, navigate uncertainty emerging human-animal intimacies.