In the next few months the barrage and carnage in our countryside will start all over again. Our hunters will never learn that it is more satisfying to interact with birds than to kill them.

Birds have the intelligence of eight-year-old children and can tell whether they are liked or hated. One would imagine that they would regard a hunter as someone who hates them, as otherwise why would he want to shoot and kill them.

On the other hand, birds and other animals respond to me. They realise that I will not harm them. The lion in the photo with me in Mauritius is my friend, as he knows that every time I walk with him that I like him and does not attack me. Yet when I put a piece of meat at the top of a tree, he quickly rushes up and grabs the food.

I appeal to those few hunters who are intelligent and therefore understand my message. Don’t treat birds like inanimate objects. They have the same intelligence as quite a few of you.

It is time to hang your gun on the wall in your house and call it a day. Let our children enjoy the tweeting of birds. Let them learn to love these lovely creatures which not only understand us but love to interact with us.