In the course of their monitoring of large trapping installations on Malta and Gozo participants in the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) Operation Safe Passage said that it has filmed four cases of illegal trapping since last Saturday. The subsequent police controls resulted in the seizure of several large clap nets as well as 9 live and 2 artificial bird decoys.

On last Saturday morning 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 informed by the team seized a more than 40 m long net and have started proceedings against the offender, CABS said.

On Monday morning the conservationists said that they discovered an active trapping site near Bahrija, where a trapper was attempting to catch protected Dotterel (Birwina). For this the man 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.

A real cops and robbers chase took place on Tuesday as police raided the site of a song bird trapper near Zurrieq. Following a tip-off from Birdlife Malta a CABS team had filmed the man for hours previously from a 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 5 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. According to CABS spokesperson Axel Hirschfeld, “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”.

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.

CABS said that the videos will be available for viewing on Youtube in the course of the next days.

The convservationists sait that in addition to checks of trapping sites CABS teams said that they 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.

Permalink: CABS records & reports illegal bird trapping on Gozo & Malta