Yesterday morning at 6.00am a member of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) team spotted a man trapping protected Ortolan Buntings [Ortolan in Maltese] close to the Dingli radar station. “The trapper used a 15-meter long clap net, an illegal bird caller and a live decoy.”
“The police responded to their report within 5 minutes. Thanks to the quick response the poacher was caught red-handed and is expected to be taken to court soon,” CABS Wildlife Crime Officer Fiona Burrows stated.
The Ortolan Bunting is a songbird species of conservation concern in most countries of the EU. According to the European Commission one reason for its massive decline is illegal trapping. “On Malta the rare bird is illegally targeted by trappers in late April and September on migration. A single bird can be sold for several hundreds of Euros on the black market,” CABS said.
Apart from the case in Dingli CABS Bird Guards said that the have “observed several other hunting related offences in the last 4 days. These included shooting at protected Marsh Harriers in Selmun, the illegal use of bird callers and automatic shotguns capable of firing more than 3 shots, violations of the afternoon hunting curfew and hunting too close to a secondary road.”
Photograph by CABS