CABS reports illegal bird trapping, police seize nets and live bird decoys

A real 'cops and robbers' chase took place on Tuesday as police raided the site of a song bird trapper near Zurrieq, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter said today.

Following a tip-off from Birdlife Malta, a CABS team filmed the man for hours in his hide, and obtained long footage of the man trapping protected larks and pipits. The man saw the approaching police patrol and took to his heels, scrambling over a high stone wall to make his escape.

His flight was however in vain as the police were later able to identify him easily from the CABS film. A search of the trapping site discovered five live Short-toed Larks (Bilbla) and a Red-throated Pipit (Dizz Ahmar), all of which were seized and later released into the wild. Two of the birds had clearly been caught a very short time before.

"CABS praise the rapid reaction of the police; criticise however their decision not to confiscate the nets or to search the man’s premises for further protected bird species," spokesperson Axel Hirschfeld said. “Protected birds have been seized at this same trapping site three times already in the past 12 months. The fact that illegal trapping continues here, despite ongoing investigations, demonstrates just how fanatical these trappers are”.

In a statement, CABS said the subsequent police controls resulted in the seizure of several large clap nets as well as 9 live and 2 artificial bird decoys.

Last Saturday, a CABS team were alerted to a trapper in St. Thomas’ Bay who was attempting to attract protected wader species by means of an illegal bird caller. The police seized a 40m long net and started proceedings against the offender.

On Monday morning the conservationists discovered an active trapping site near Bahrija, where a trapper was attempting to catch protected Dotterel (Birwina). CABS said the trapper used plastic decoys as well as an electronic device playing Dotterel calls. "A video recorded the man trapping and a copy was handed over to the A.L.E. as evidence. They subsequently searched the site and seized other items for evidence," CABS said.

A further seizure of protected species was made yesterday afternoon near Adira san Raflo (Gozo), where a CABS team filmed a trapper catching waders over a number of hours. Officers from Victoria police station called to the scene caught the trapper still in his hut and seized his nets as well as 3 live Dotterel.

In addition to checks of trapping sites CABS teams have also observed and reported numerous cases of illegal hunting and have found several shot birds including a Kestrel (Spanjulett) and a Nightjar (Buqrajq). This morning the conservationists were appalled to witness the killing of two Honey Buzzards (Kuccarda) and a protected wader species being shot at south of Girgenti valley. Details of these latter incidents will be published in the next few days.