Hunting, migration figures raise suspicions of under-reporting

A comparison between the number of quail and turtledoves migrating over the Maltese islands last autumn and the number of shot birds have raised new suspicions on potential under-reporting by hunters - or if hunters’ figures are anything to go by, Malta’s hunters must be amongst the worst shooters in the world.

According to a study conducted by the government-commissioned environmental company Ecoserv, a whopping 45,683 quail and 7,956 turtledoves migrated over Malta between September and October 2014, more than during the three-week spring hunting season in 2014.

The figures turn on its head the claim hunters make that autumn hunting is no alternative to spring as a similar study conducted during three weeks in April 2014 observed some 24,922 turtle doves and 37,773 quails, questioning the validity of a spring hunting derogation.

But what is more glaring is that according to hunters, 2,480 turtledoves and 1,688 quail were hunted during last year’s autumn hunting season – the lowest ever figures recorded. The figures – which are based on the Carnet de Chasse data, the booklet hunters fill to declare their catches – show that 6,746 hunters or 62% of Malta’s 10,811 licensed hunters did not hunt a single bird during the autumn hunting season.

No seasonal bag limit for quail and turtledove exists, but the spring bag limit of 11,000 turtledoves and 5,000 quails applies only if the autumn catch of the previous year is lower than 10,000 turtledoves and 10,000 quails – which limit ultimately depends on the hunters’ figures.

The government attributed the low numbers due to a poor extent of autumn migration, as well as the fact that last year’s autumn hunting season was suspended between September 20 and October 11 to safeguard protected bird species. The suspension was made because of the killing of at least two white storks and two marsh harriers, both of which are protected species, in one week.

Using the data which Ecoserv collected, and excluding the quail that passed over Malta during that part of the autumn hunting season which the government had suspended last year, Ecoserv said hunters bagged a miserly seven per cent of the quail – or just 1,688 of the birds.

On the other hand, according to carnet de chasse data, 2,480 turtledoves were reported killed. However, Ecoserv’s total turtledove count includes the birds that flew over Malta between 20 September and 10 October – the four weeks in which the Prime Minister had suspended the hunting season to safeguard protected bird species.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported on September 4, hunters reported shooting 68 turtle doves, when none were observed migrating, while on October 13, only eight birds were shot out of a total of 542 birds.  Similarly, on September 3, over 1,000 quail were recorded, yet hunters only shot eight. In the five days between October 13 and 17, hunters recorded shooting over 100 birds – yet Ecoserv’s data shows that no quail migrated over Malta.

The hunters’ organisation FKNK insists that hunters’ data is reliable, while the government said Malta deploys one of the most elaborate and rigorous hunting bag verification and control regimes anywhere in Europe.

However, environmental lobbyists have argued that there are hunters who do not declare their catches, while reports sent to the European Commission on the spring hunting derogation over the last three years consistently showed a spike in hunters’ declarations in the last three days of the season.  This fuelled suspicions that hunters were not reporting shot birds to avoid quotas being reached.