Axel Hirschfield and David Conlin, Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), Xemxija
Turtle Dove hunting
We refer to various letters on the subject of shooting of turtle doves which have appeared in The Times written by David Borg Cardona and Brian Simmons.
Both defend the hunting of turtle doves on the grounds that the species is, inter alia, a pest species in Great Britain and is otherwise widespread in Europe, populations having increased by 600 per cent (!) over the past few years. This statement is far removed from the truth and, in our opinion, is a wicked attempt at disinformation designed to deceive a gullible and uninformed public. The real facts are as follows.
First, almost all European scientific monitoring programmes (for example in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany) have established that the numbers of breeding pairs of turtle doves has steeply declined.
Second, the European Commission has listed the turtle dove (and indeed the common quail) as a species with an unfavourable conservation status.
In Germany both species are on the Red List of endangered species.
Against this background, the arguments that Mr Borg Cardona and others present that the hunting of this species is sustainable does not bear water from an ecological point of view. The generally-accepted definition of "sustainable use" is that only the harvesting of a healthy surplus of a population or populations can be considered acceptable from an ecological standpoint. This is demonstrably not the case with the turtle dove - throughout the whole of Europe.
Our organisation will do its utmost to ensure that the turtle dove - as well as the common quail - whose populations are equally at threat - are removed as huntable species from Appendix II of the EU Bird Protection Guidelines.
Hunting of these species in spring and autumn is no longer sustainable to any degree either on Malta, or in any other EU state where they can at present be hunted legally.
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Fabian Borg
May 2nd 2008, 18:01
Are comments reaching you ??
So I guess we just imagined the flocks of 1000`s of Turtle doves crossing over Malta on Apr,14 2008. And this heavy migration with Malta neither on, nor close to, the main migratory flyway. The passage that day must have been in the high millions and it could be not over yet.
Turtle doves are still migrating as we write.
If the Turtle Dove is Red Listed in Germany while abundant in the whole of Europe and Africa it is Germany`s problem to check what is happening in their back garden. There could be dozens of reasons why the Turtle Dove population in Germany is reducing, if it actually is. The primary reason is probably loss of natural habitat or competition from other birds or both. Not to mention deforestation and increasing industries and logistics. Germany always tops the world with technology and timely logistics so this could be one of the side effects.
So why should other countries suffer because of Germany`s lack of concern on its territory ?
Darren Caruana
May 2nd 2008, 15:50
It was said, until only recently that spring hunting of only Turtle Dove and Quail should stop because an alternative exists in autumn.
Now these gentlemen have just said that their aim is for autumn hunting to stop aswell.
I hope that the Maltese government realises at some point what is happening here!!!
And to Mr Axel Hirschfield and David Conlin, I say; Why don't you try and clean your gardens before critisizing ours!!!!
Andrew Gatt
May 2nd 2008, 13:17
Aha, now they want to ban ALL hunting! Well, THESE ARE THE FACTS AS STATED BY BI|DLIFE THEMSELVES! Who's lying now?
Red List Category & Criteria: LC ver 2.3 (1994)
Year Assessed: 2004
Assessor/s: BirdLife International
Evaluator/s: Ekstrom, J. & Butchart, S. (BirdLife International Red List Authority)
Justification: This species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,000,000–10,000,000 km². It has a large global population, including an estimated 6,900,000–14,000,000 individuals in Europe (BirdLife International in prep.). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
History: 1988 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004)
1994 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004)
2000 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2000)
godfrey pisani
May 2nd 2008, 11:47
firstly the problem with turtle doves in germany is that they have been kick out by the collared dove as what happened in other parts of europe so this has nothing to do with hunting . Your extremism is to ban any type of hunting any where , that is your objective and has nothing to do with turtle doves and if your plan is to start from this tiny member state because a few people gave you a lot of importance here ....I say a lot of people here have been quiet enough , there is no place for extremist as they will only bring more problems not solve problems. I think its high time this government started seriously taking this bull by the horn and find middle roads for these problems as we are playing with people's way of living here , traditions and cultures . I as a hunter am bound to protect the environment and practice sustainable hunting it is my right to do this and you shall never take this away .
MARK MIFSUD BONNICI
May 2nd 2008, 10:37
Contrary to what you consider as a "wicked attempt at disinformation designed to deceive a gullible and uninformed public." The real facts are as follows:
The EU MANAGEMENT PLAN for TURTLE DOVE
(Streptopelia turtur)
2007 –2009 states:
"Estimates of population sizes are available for most European countries; however they
are still imprecise, with important differences between maximum and minimum
numbers. For most countries, these estimates are not backed up by censuses prepared
from sampling programs (table 2), and an updating of all estimates are much needed."
The Turtle Dove is included in several national common bird monitoring and census
schemes (e.g. CBC/BBS in the United Kingdom, ACT and STOC in France and the
BirdLife/European Bird Census Council Pan-European Common Birds Monitoring
Scheme), but it is obvious that more scientific work should be done on European
populations to assess their on-going trend.
A major problem in developing a management plan for the Turtle Dove is the extremely wide distribution of
the species, breeding in wooded farmland throughout nearly the whole of Europe. This makes it difficult to
precisely evaluate the population without detailed monitoring.
An important part of the Turtle Dove lifecycle takes place outside the borders of the EU, where it is also
difficult to assess the wintering populations (e.g. West-Africa).
Furthermore the knowledge of the bag statistics and the year to year variation in the number of Turtle Dove
taken throughout Europe, North and West Africa is simply inadequate to assess accurately the extent and
variation of hunting pressure
The total European population estimate stands between 3.5 and 7.2 million pairs
(BirdLife International, 2004a).
In central Spain (notably Extremadura) and in several parts of France where both species of dove occur
Collared Dove appears to compete with Turtle Doves. When comparing the presence/absence in places
where both species could exist, Rocha & Hidalgo (2000) observed that there was an excluding relation
between the two species. Furthermore, the analysis of densities of both species in the same places
showed that Turtle Dove densities decreased as Collared Dove densities increased. In Hungary, the
Turtle Dove disappeared from many of its traditional areas, in parallel with an increase of the Collared
Dove populations (Gluts & Bauer, 1992).
The Turtle Dove is still a widespread and fairly common species in southern Europe.
However, except for France, the population in the EU has declined considerably since the
1970s and it is now considered to have an unfavourable conservation status. The breeding
range in Europe is stable, with a small recent extension north to Denmark, Finland and
occasionally Sweden.
Fabian Borg
May 2nd 2008, 10:11
I guess we just imagined the THOUSANDS of Turtle Doves migrating over Malta on Apr 14,2008. Also being that Malta is in no way on, or close to, a main migratory flyway the actual figures of Turtle Doves crossing from Europe to Africa must be in the region of HIGH MILLIONS since we noticed thousands here.
An industrialised Europe, with Germany on top, could be the real reason for the turtle dove and quails loss of natural reproducing habitat and no limitation of hunting will ever change that. I suggest that you start fighting your crusade in your own country and re-establish favourable breeding conditions for the turtle dove (possibly by eliminating the collard dove too) and then start accusing European hunters about the Turtle Doves decline in numbers if this is really the case.
H Farrugia
May 2nd 2008, 09:52
hands off Malta. We do not need foreigners to teach us. We will teach YOU how to care for unborn babies and morality. And not vice versa. You have nothing to teach us! We will teach you that humans are more important than animals, be they birds, dogs or anything.
David Borg Cardona
May 2nd 2008, 09:22
So there we have it.. Do we require any more proof of what we have been stating for ages. That Birdlife and its allies are all out for a total ban on hunting even in Autumn. So much for Tolga Temuge saying that his association have nothing against hunting for turtle doves and quails in autumn. I wonder who blurts out wicked attempts at disinformation......