BirdLife reports rise in shot protected birds

BirdLife Malta said today that since the opening of the autumn season on September 1, it had received 62 shot protected birds- nearly double the total of 33 shot protected birds recovered over the same period last year. "This is the worst autumn hunting season since the organization started keeping detailed records of shot birds in 2007." Over 60% of the shot protected birds were birds of prey, including rare species in Europe such as the Pallid Harrier. Furthermore during BirdLife's international bird monitoring Raptor Camp the conservation organization recorded an additional 124 injured protected birds in flight with visible gunshot injuries, and a further 106 protected birds being shot at or shot down by illegal hunters. Commenting on the present situation, BirdLife Malta Conservation Manager, Nicholas Barbara said "We have been witnessing widespread and commonplace illegal shooting and killing of protected species this autumn. The nearly 300 protected birds we witnessed being killed or received are just those we could record with our limited resources. We suspect that with the shot birds directly reported to the authorities and the unrecorded incidences, thousands of protected...