The Environment Ministry and the police are working together to intensify the fight against illegal hunting, according to a spokesman who deplored the shooting of a flock of flamingos over Salina on Wednesday.
“The hunting of protecting birds is illegal, irresponsible and goes against the common interests of the country,” the ministry said.
Birdlife reported that three flamingos, out of a flock of 40, were likely to have been killed and another three injured when a hunter shot at the migrating birds.
The flock was first spotted on Tuesday in the south heading north, following the coastline as far as St Paul’s Bay. The birds may have roosted overnight near St Paul’s Islands.
On Wednesday morning, as the birds tried to resume their migration, they came under fire, Birdlife said. In a statement, the Federation for Hunting and Conservation said it was working with St Hubert Hunters to intensify their efforts to see the perpetrator of this “atrocious act” brought to justice.
The federation deplored the shooting but called on Birdlife not to make sweeping statements.
“This flock of 40 birds had been sighted by several of our members in several locations along the eastern coast of our islands on October 2 and 3. In none of these locations, where they were filmed and photographed, were any of these protected birds shot at.
“We object, therefore, to Birdlife’s claims of ‘illegal hunting being widespread and not isolated cases as claimed by the authorities’,” the federation said.
It added that it was wrong of Birdlife to assume, without verifying the facts, that birds were “probably killed”.
In a separate statement, Birdlife yesterday said it had been “flooded” with dead and injured protected birds follow-ing the shooting of several Greater Flamingos in St Paul’s Bay last Wednesday.
Over the last two days, Birdlife alone recovered seven injured protected birds, including a common kestrel, a night heron, a yellow-legged gull, a hoopoe, a lesser kestrel, a marsh harrier and a honey buzzard.
The conservation NGO said it also received confirmation of a shot hobby in Gozo last Thursday. The bird was recovered and the planning authority informed.
Birdlife said it had observed or received reports of numerous illegalities over the past few days.
“Illegal hunting is clearly completely out of control and the Government’s claims of high levels of enforcement and zero tolerance of illegal hunting bear no relation to reality,” Birdlife’s Nicholas Barbara said.
Birdlife, the RSPB (Birdlife UK) investigations team and Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) also kept an overnight watch at Dingli on Thursday night to safeguard two roosting Egyptian vultures.
The endangered juveniles were seen arriving on Wednesday by birdwatchers in Dwejra, where illegal hunters shot at them, according to Birdlife. The vultures weren’t hit.
“These were two of the lucky ones,” said Bob Elliot, head of the RSPB’s investigations unit. “The need for a dedicated wildlife crime unit in Malta could not be better highlighted than this case.”