Rare eagle shot down

Two hunters are being investigated by the police after a rare and protected lesser spotted eagle was shot dead near Buskett on Saturday afternoon, The Times has learned.

The shooting of the juvenile eagle was reported to the police by members of Birdlife Malta's Raptor Camp who witnessed the bird being gunned down after the 3 p.m. ban on hunting.

A witness said the bird had barely landed on a tree when two men crept towards it. A shot was then heard and the bird took flight for a few feet before plunging to the ground.

Some time later the two men reappeared and one seemed to be hiding something under his T-shirt. As they made their way towards their car, one of the men hid the object by the side of the road.

Suspecting that this was the bird, the witness called the police Administrative Law Enforcement unit, which was on patrol in the area. Police officers turned up within minutes and detained the two men.

The hidden object turned out to be a juvenile lesser spotted eagle, the witness said. "The body of the bird was still warm. We had seen it flying before. It's pretty horrifying to see it lying dead in the back of the police Land Rover."

Apart from being illegal, the killing of this rare bird is "really bad in international eyes", Birdlife campaign coordinator Jeffrey Saliba said. He explained that a lot of money was spent by foreign governments and the EU for the conservation of these eagles.

Given the birds' breeding and migratory patterns, it was probably coming from Germany but this was not certain. He added that a German conservation organisation was monitoring another two juvenile lesser spotted eagles that were on their way to the island.

By the afternoon, another five lesser spotted eagles were seen flying over Malta by Birdlife, bringing the total number of this species in Malta this week to nine.

A Birdlife spokesman said this constituted five per cent of Germany's population of lesser spotted eagles, adding that Bernd Meyburg, researcher at the telemetric project of lesser spotted eagles, was worried.

"Dr Meyburg is very concerned because one has already been killed and Malta's reputation does not bode well for the future of these birds. He is worried the lesser spotted eagles may be killed before returning to their nesting site in Germany," the spokesman said.

Lino Farrugia, secretary of the hunters' federation, FKNK, stressed they will not tolerate illegal hunting, adding that if the two investigated hunters were FKNK members and they were arraigned and subsequently convicted by the court they would be expelled.

Referring to the recent statement by the German-based anti-hunting group CABS - claiming that there had been a massacre of protected birds last weekend - Mr Farrugia said "shooting one bird is not a massacre".

This latest shooting revives the ghost of Sigmar, a German lesser spotted eagle, which made the headlines both in Malta and Germany after it was found suffering from gunshot wounds in Birżebbuġa last September.

After being shot, Sigmar - named after the country's Environment Minister - was flown to Berlin to undergo an operation to stabilise its leg after some of the six pellets detected through an X-ray scan were taken out. But two months later it succumbed to an infection around its shinbone.

During the Raptor Camp, that ended this weekend, Birdlife said it had received 17 protected birds that had been shot, including one grey heron, five marsh harriers, five honey buzzards and a lesser kestrel.

In the last 11 days, participants also witnessed a further 19 protected birds being shot down but not recovered, including two black storks.

Six hunters were arrested by the police over the past two weeks following information supplied by participants in the Raptor Camp, Birdlife said.