On Sunday afternoon BirdLife Malta were called to the rescue of an adult Greater Flamingo from the sea off the coast of Gozo.

The bird was found swimming at sea off the Gozo coast between Xlendi and Ta’ Cenc and was brought to shore with the assistance of members of the public. It was taken to the Government vet for examination

BirdLife stated that “the targeting of such charismatic species is rife more than ever as the migration of various species peaks during these days.”

It follows a weekend, which BirdLife said, was “characterised by illegalities which kept us chasing a Short-toed Snake-eagle and other rarities, which still got shot at.”

BirdLife claimed that “such illegal hunting occurs for the sole purpose of taxidermy collections with specimens numbering hundreds of thousands among the hunting community.”

“Thanks to recent changes in legislation under Minister for Gozo Clint Camilleri, such killings if undetected by police end up in taxidermy collections and end up as non-prosecutable collections under the guise of legalised transfers from one hunter to another,” the NGO said.

“The situation is indirectly also permitted with the low amount of police deployed to monitor circa 10,000 active hunting licences,” it said.

BirdLife went on to say that “on Gozo, EPU (Environmental Protection Unit) is not permitted to operate with such tasks left to the Gozo Police who have the task of all other police duties on the island. ”

It added that “the situation with illegal hunting is in a dire state and the permitted persecution of protected species is having a direct toll on conservation efforts on these birds incoming from mainland Europe.”

On Malta, BirdLife said that, “a maximum of two EPU police units have been encountered despite the need to ensure all-round protection of rare eagles.”

Screenshot from Video (with Maltese narration) was taken in Gozo, following the retrieval of the bird by BirdLife Malta Head of Conservation Nik Barbara.

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