CABS said today its bird watchers filmed two trappers who tried to catch rare Eurasian Curlews, Black-tailed Godwits and Black-winged Stilts in Zejtun and on the Delimara peninsula.

The men used plastic decoys and illegal bird callers imitating plovers. CABS said that its team reported both cases to the police who apprehended one man and seized the lures as well as two sets of clap nets.

CABS said that during the operation in Zejtun a man threatened its volunteers with a bludgeon. Unknown persons also obstructed the way for a police car by placing boulders on a countryside road leading to the trapping site. 

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species the populations of Black-tailed Godwits and Eurasian Curlews are decreasing. Both species are listed as "Near threatened" by the IUCN and are stricly protected in Malta. The Black-winged Stilt is a rare breeding bird on Malta with only a few breeding records in the last years.

Last month, two hunters were fined a total of €10.000 for shooting a Black-winged Stilt in Xemxija.

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