Spring hunting illegalities amounted to less than a third of those witnessed in last year’s season, according to Birdlife Malta.
A detailed report of this year’s spring hunting season, seen by Times of Malta, revealed that the number of observed illegalities amounted to 339 – 829 fewer than in 2013.
The illegalities do not include the number of dead or injured protected birds discovered by the NGO but cover other contraventions such as audio recordings of bird songs.
The news comes just as the government has reopened the autumn hunting season after a 20-day ban enforced after a number of protected species were shot down.
Hunters are becoming cautious of public opinion
Birdlife conservation officer Nick Barbara, who drafted the report, “speculated” that the decrease was a result of the international attention being given to the practice.
“Hunters are becoming cautious of public opinion. There was a lot of media attention, not just locally this time,” he said.
Last spring, BBC journalist Chris Packham came to Malta to broadcast footage of “thousands of hunters killing millions of birds”.
Despite falling short of that goal, Mr Packham’s visit featured heavily in the international press.
This was not the only thing forcing hunters to practise more caution. Mr Barbara said growing support for the proposed spring hunting referendum may have also forced hunters to show “less blatant disregard for the rules and they try harder not to get caught”.
The study, which was presented to State hunting consultative body Ornis last month, is based on Birdlife’s annual Spring Watch in which 75 volunteers scoured the Maltese countryside taking note of illegal hunting practices.
The majority of illegalities committed during this year’s season – 41 per cent – related to the use of illegal electronic lures (audio recordings of bird song used to attract quail and turtle doves). Hunting outside of permitted hours accounted for a third of all illegalities while the use of modified shotguns and hunting near residential areas accounted for nine per cent.
A look at particular irregularities further highlights the drastic decline in observed illegal hunting. In 2013 for instance, some 2,100 shots were fired outside permitted hunting hours.
This year, however, just 192 shots were recorded by Birdlife volunteers. A total of 33,709 shots were recorded during the three-week season, nearly 10,000 fewer than in 2012.
Illegal hunting was recorded in 68 localities, with San Niklaw, in the limits of Siġġiewi, topping the list. Mosta, Delimara, Ħal Farruġ and Magħtab also made it to the top five illegal hunting haunts.
Not all aspects of illegal hunting decreased. In fact, the number of protected birds with visible gunshot injuries almost doubled this year, with 103 birds spotted compared with 62 in 2013. Large birds of prey such as marsh harriers made up the majority of illegally wounded birds. These are clearly distinguishable from the quails and doves open for hunting in spring.
Mr Barbara said the study also exposed flaws in the self-reporting system currently in force.
Hunters are obliged to report all of their kills via SMS, however, while this year’s spring migration was lighter than in previous years, the number of text message declarations was substantially higher.
Mr Barbara said the results of the SMS reports indicated that more turtle doves were killed than in previous years, raising the question of how this occurred when noticeably fewer birds migrated over the island.
“This just goes to show how this system does not work at all,” he said.
Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes said when contacted that the improved situation was the result of increased enforcement during the spring hunting season.
He said 53 offenders had been apprehended during this year’s season, leading to 69 charges.
Almost half the offenders had already been prosecuted, found guilty and penalised according to law, he said, adding that the remaining cases were still being prosecuted.