The incidents of illegal hunting witnessed by birdwatchers more than doubled when compared to last year, highlighting the need for stronger enforcement and tougher penalties, BirdLife president Joseph Mangion said yesterday.
Mr Mangion also highlighted, however, that while illegal hunting increased generally, the number of protected species shot by poachers dropped significantly during the period of the raptor camp, held late in September. He said this proved that a strong presence of birdwatchers and police officers in the countryside is an effective deterrent.
As he unveiled statistics compiled by BirdLife Malta and birdwatchers during the camp, Mr Mangion released video footage filed by camp members showing images of birds after being shot. The graphic material also shows a honey buzzard coughing up blood. A black stork was filmed as it was gunned down and two poachers are caught red-handed on video hiding a protected lesser spotted eagle they had just shot inside the Buskett bird sanctuary.
Mr Mangion described the current illegal hunting scenario as a "when-the-cat's-away-the-mouse-will-play situation".
During the hunting season, between September 1 and October 13, BirdLife fieldworkers recorded a total of 626 general illegal hunting incidents - an increase of 111 per cent over last year when 297 incidents were recorded.
The number of reports of shot protected birds between August 15 and October 13 increased from 21 birds last year to 55 this year and reports of illegal hunting after the 3 p.m. ban rose from 97 last year to 252 this year.
In contrast to these increases, the number of cases involving hunters shooting at protected species and witnessed by BirdLife during the raptor camp, held between September 13 and 22, dropped from 109 last year to 94 this year.
While, at face value, the drop may not appear to be dramatic, it becomes so when one factors in the fact that more reports are likely to be filed during the raptor camp than at some other time, Mr Mangion explained.
In other words, it follows that more incidents should be reported during the camp as a result of the increased presence of birdwatchers and not fewer. The fact that there is less hunting of protected birds during the camp shows that the presence is effective.
BirdLife relies on volunteer birdwatchers to monitor the countryside throughout the year but there is never, at any one time, the massive presence in the countryside as there is during the camps.
Asked whether BirdLife relied on the same number of birdwatchers at this year's raptor camp as it did last year, in order to be able to make a fair comparison, BirdLife executive director Tolga Temuge said that with 49 birdwatchers, there were actually 10 fewer volunteers this year.
"On average, however, we still had the same number of teams. We consciously maintained the same methodology, precisely in order to be able to make the comparison," Mr Temuge said.
Mr Mangion stressed that more needs to be done to curb the hunting of protected birds.
BirdLife analysis of the past two months shows that the most commonly targeted protected species by poachers were European bee-eaters, marsh harriers, honey buzzards, barn swallows and black storks.
Bernd-Ulrich Meyburg, the head of BirdLife Germany's raptor protection working group, joined the news conference via telephone from Switzerland.
Prof. Meyburg, who also works on a conservation project on lesser spotted eagles in Germany, referred to Sigmar - the lesser spotted eagle which made the headlines in both Malta and Germany after it was found suffering from gunshot wounds in Birżebbuġa in September last year.
He explained that there are fewer than 100 breeding pairs in Germany and "it is particularly disturbing to see these protected birds being gunned down recklessly by the Maltese poachers while we are spending a significant sum of money to protect them in Europe... We are literally praying that our birds do not fly over Malta," he said.
Attempts to get a reaction from the hunters' federation proved futile.