1 comment.Open letter sent to Prime Minister regarding disappearance of Egyptian Vulture over Malta
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Further to yesterday’s statement by BirdLife Malta regarding the Egyptian Vulture – Isabel, which had her migration cut short over Malta, the NGO has advised of an open letter sent some time ago by the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF) and CERM Endangered Raptors Centre to Prime Minister Robert Abela.
The Vulture Conservation Foundation is an international organisation working towards the conservation of European vultures and provided the GPS tag to monitor Isabel’s movements. CERM (Centro Rapaci Minacciati) manages the centre where Isabel was born and captive-bred before eventually being released into the wild.
BirdLife Malta said that, “in their strongly-worded letter, they explain how four out of five reintroduced vultures released this year from Italy’s captive breeding programme as part of the LIFE Egyptian Vulture project started their migration to Africa and whilst two are now in Tunisia, the other two followed an eastern route and reached Malta.”
The letter says that “one arrived on the 6th of September and according to credible information it was shot at but luckily managed to escape and reach Libya, whilst the other one was Isabel which arrived in Malta two days ago and was probably shot down and killed.”
The letter continues that “the shooting of these birds is a major blow to the conservation of the species, and the estimated cost to reintroduce an Egyptian Vulture such as Isabel has been put at €50,000, with these joint efforts to protect these endangered birds being jeopardised by the reckless attitude of Maltese shooters.”
VCF and CERM have called on the Prime Minister “to take all possible action to investigate and punish this crime,” concluding that “it is unconceivable that in the year 2021 rogue people are allowed to shoot such birds illegally with impunity”
The full text of the letter, which was also sent to the European Commission’s LIFE Unit and the European Union’s Head of Nature Unit, can be read below.
Photo: Distant record shot of the Egyptian Vulture taken in the early afternoon when it was still soaring very high over Buskett on Tuesday (Photo by BirdLife Malta)
The Person who Shot this Egyptian Vulture has took it to a Taxidermist to have it mounted The police should Try and track down who is doing this work and find who the shooter is so he can be arraigned in Court