A flamingo was recovered by a fisherman from the sea off the coast of Gozo in the third illegal hunting casualty recorded since the start of the autumn hunting season on 1 September.
The fisherman saw the injured flamingo floating while he was out at sea and called Birdlife Malta, which said it was an adult flamingo with serious injuries and covered in blood.
Illegal hunting of flamingos “is not a new phenomenon in Malta”, Nick Barbara said in a video posted on Facebook (reproduced below), referring to the incident at Qawra Point a year ago.
“This is a protected bird. Hunting flamingos is completely illegal, and the act carries huge fines. But it seems hunters in Malta insist on targeting these birds,” Barbara added.
The Greater Flamingo recovered with gunshot wounds on 3 September 2022
He blamed the government’s “enabling” of illegal hunting through policy changes. The flamingo is highly sought after for hunters’ collections of stuffed birds.
Birdlife Malta said it had also received a Black-crowned Night-heron that was recovered by police in Dingli and a Eurasian Collared-dove found by a member of the public in Attard.
The conservation organisation said the two illegal hunting casualties were recovered in less than 24 hours on the first day of the season.
“All three birds were taken to the Malta government vet who confirmed they were illegally shot,” Birdlife said.
The autumn hunting season runs for five months until the end of January 2023.
‘researh’ is the game!
But subsidised ‘research’, we have been told, covers only song birds and turtle-doves.
I did not know that jn our Island we also have experts in flamingo migration habits. Well, it seems we do have them, after all.
A proposito…any update regarding the Qawra massacre?
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/alleged-poacher-charged-with-killing-four-flamingos-in-qawra.905038
Not that most of us have read, or heard, of, Mr Borg, But do not worry – our institutions are fully functional, we are constantly reminded.
Tort huwa totalment tal-gvern li ma jimportah xejn hlief min dawk ta’rieda tajba. Izda min nies hlief mohhom gl’ispararau r-rix
This government just does not want to leave it’s seat so it will promise anything to anyone for the vote. It is a pity that the murderers’ votes seem more important to the people in power than the others vote and good governance, whatever that is, is just a battle cry for this shitty government.
Right answer.
Barbari of todays Nature World. With a handful aid of our super Labour dictator.
This had got to stop Malta must obey the rules. It does not in any respect whether driving speed limits or shooting protected birds. Down to the government