Poaching still widespread, but may be on the wane – CABS

The German conservationists said in their report on ‘Operation Safe Passage’, that its two-man teams had to be accompanied by licensed security personnel during their daytime and night patrols in notorious hunting spots.

Among the offences they recorded in their two-week patrol were 23 killings of protected birds; 20 incidents of shooting at protected species; 11 finds of protected birds with shotgun injuries; 15 cases of illegal trapping; and 121 shots fired during the afternoon and evening hunting curfew that runs from 3pm on weekday and from 1pm on Sundays. The teams also registered some 31 electronic bird callers, which are also illegal.

“Incidents observed and recorded by our teams demonstrate unquestionably that bird poaching in autumn on Malta is as widespread as ever and presents a real threat to the preservation of protected species, especially migrating birds of prey,” CABS said in their report.

The group also found that poachers do not restrict their activities to shooting birds in flight. “Night roosts are regularly visited by groups of marauding hunters who illuminate the roosts with spotlights and shoot the birds out of the trees, bushes and reeds in which they have taken refuge.”

The group said the presence of police did not deter poachers from harassing CABS teams during the night from pick-ups, with vehicle registration plates covered with masking tape.

“As our teams could at any one time never cover more than a maximum of 5% of the islands’ area suitable for hunting, our collated data represent of course only a very small percentage of offences committed during our operational time frame.”

During the same period, BirdLife Malta had also recorded a further 461 offences, according to their Raptor Camp report.

However, CABS noted hat it was remarkable that the number of recorded incidents had declined by about half since 2007. “Even if this… cannot be taken as scientific proof of a decline in poaching, it gives grounds for hope… Observations by local bird conservationists and the finds – two years running – of dead birds of prey and many other protected species in Mizieb point to the fact that the pressure from hunting in the weeks before and after our camps is markedly higher than when our teams are covering the roosts.”

CABS also said that poaching in this stretch of the Mizieb woodland, which is managed by the hunters’ federation FKNK, had continued without restraint.

“In the course of the search a further 85 bird fresh corpses, rotting remains and other remnants of protected birds were discovered… all the birds found had been concealed under large stones or rubbish by persons unknown.”

In order to lend support to the authorities in their campaign to combat poaching, CABS organises two annual bird protection camps on Malta. Last autumn 22 volunteers from 6 European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy Malta and the United Kingdom) participated in the camp. These were mostly experienced biologists, ornithologists and veterinary surgeons who are involved in bird conservation projects in their home countries.