Police apprehend armed poacher inside Is-Simar Nature Reserve

Police from the Administrative Law Enforcement department, apprehended an armed hunter inside Is-Simar Nature Reserve, in Xemxija, on Monday evening.

BirdLife Malta said that the police were alerted to a break-in at the wetland Bird Sanctuary by one of the reserve’s watchmen and immediately dispatched a unit to the location.

“Officers attending the scene chased down and caught a single armed suspect, who was still inside the reserve when they arrived,” BLM said.

Is-Simar is one of only two wetland Nature Reserves in Malta, managed by BirdLife Malta, and is home to many birds and other wildlife found in few other places in the Maltese Islands.

BLM said that “it is thought the break-in was carried out in an attempt to target birds currently over-wintering in the wetland, which include several Teal, Snipe and Coots.”

BirdLife Malta’s Nature Reserves Manager, Mark Gauci, said, “It is a shame that incidents like this one mean we need to have watchmen guarding a nature reserve, where so much time and effort has gone in to creating a place where people can experience nature and see birds and wildlife that would otherwise have no safe refuge in Malta.”

With winter slowly giving way to spring, several of Is-Simar’s birds are already starting to display breeding behaviour, including Little Grebes for whom the wetland is the only known breeding site in the islands, thanks to the ideal habitat provided by the dense reed beds around the brackish lake.

BLM said that visitors can enjoy these and other birds, animals and plants at Is-Simar every Sunday throughout the spring, when the reserve is open to the public between 10.30am and 4.30pm, “with regular guided walks from the reserve’s visitor centre and a public bird-watching hide which offers the best chance of getting close-up views of wildlife you won’t see anywhere else in the islands.”

For more information about visiting Is-Simar or its sister reserve Ghadira, in Mellieha, please visit www.birdlifemalta.org ^[1].

Photographs – Pair of Teal in reflective mood on the lake in Is-Simar Nature Reserve, Xemxija – On the alert: a watchful Little Grebe in Simar and Snipe, camouflaged against the water and reeds on the edge of the lake at Simar; Photo by Aron Tanti.