A highly protected Osprey (Maltese name: Arpa) was shot down in Bidnija on Wednesday, BirdLife Malta has said. This comes just four days after four Greater Flamingos were shot at Qawra Point.
The organisation said that “a passer-by who was driving in the area early this afternoon first saw the Osprey flying in his direction and then saw the bird falling down from the air, just missing his car.”
In a statement, BirdLife Malta said that the member of the public stopped and called police for assistance. He also informed BirdLife Malta.
Officers from the Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) went on site and recovered the injured bird which was taken to the government vet, “who later certified the protected bird of prey as having been illegally shot,” the organisation said.
The Osprey is a raptor species which is highly-prized by trophy hunters for taxidermy and according to BirdLife Malta, “hundreds of these birds are on the wishlist of unverified taxidermy lists by hunters who benefited from past amnesties.”
Earlier this week BirdLife Malta released statistics [1] which, it said, “show that over 523 illegally shot birds were recovered so far in the past four years alone (2018-2021).”
It argued that, “today’s incident continues to pile pressure on the Malta Government to take action in this regard and heed our call made earlier this week to immediately resume the verification process of stuffed protected bird collections.”
“We call on the general public to join BirdLife Malta to voice the country’s concern on the illegal hunting situation in Malt,” the organisation said.
Photos: BirdLife Malta