A large illegal Turtle Dove trap has been dismantled after it was discovered in Gozo by volunteers from the German-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS).
The trap, which was nearly eight metres in size, was found between Zebbug and Gordan lighthouse yesterday. Eleven recently-caught Turtle Doves were in it.
A joint AFM/ALE patrol, alerted by the birdwatchers, deactivated the trap and confiscated the birds, which will be released after the end of the hunting season later this week.
“The Turtle Dove is one of Europe’s most threatened farmland birds. It is extremely satisfying to know that these 11 birds will soon be flying in the wild again”, CABS team leader Craig Redmond said.
CABS said that early yesterday morning, one of its teams filmed two young hunters hunting too close to a residential area in Xewkija. Both men were identified by the police and will be taken to court.
In a separate incident on the same day, a CABS patrol car was blocked in by a hunter near Qala. The hunter approached the birdwatchers, violently shouting and swearing and pushing a female CABS member from Scotland.
The man then threatened to kill the team leader of the CABS patrol but the group managed to leave the area. Shortly afterwards, the same hunter stopped the CABS members as they were driving in Nadur and again threatened to kill them, swearing at the team leader to ‘go back to his own country´.
Both incidents were reported to the Victoria police station whose officers identified and summoned the aggressor. He admitted to the charges and described himself as being ´frustrated´ because he did not manage to shoot a Turtle Dove that morning.
After the man had apologised to the CABS team the birdwatchers abstained from pressing charges against him for the time being. “We told him that if any of our team members on Gozo are attacked or harassed again he will have to stand trial. It is now in his own interest to convince his hunting friends to let us work in peace in ensuring that birds can continue safely on their migration”, Craig Redmond said.
CABS also said that it received information from a local birdwatcher who confronted a hunter carrying a shotgun in the valley below Ta Gajdoru (Ramla Bay area, Gozo) yesterday evening at around 6pm, four hours after the 2pm curfew. When the hunter realised that he was being watched he run off before the police arrived at the scene.
CABS operations on Gozo are conducted in cooperation with the Foundation Pro Biodiversity.