Photo: CABS

Fifteen illegal electronic quail callers were this morning dismantled by two joint CABS/ALE teams in Malta.

The callers are static installations which consist of a digital player, loudspeakers, large batteries and a digital timer which activates the devices from midnight until the early morning.

Some of the devices were locked in metal boxes or embedded in concrete to protect them from being stolen or confiscated by the police.

All installations were removed or destroyed with special heavy tools, CABS said as it said that similar operations will be conducted in the next weeks and months.

CABS said that the use of illegal bird callers for hunting and trapping was a widespread problem. Hunting and trapping with the help of pre-recorded bird calls was regarded as a bird mass-killing method in the European Birds Directive and therefore banned.

Photo: CABS

However, the Wild Birds Regulation Unit decriminalised the use of bird callers in 2013 and those caught using the illegal callers no longer have to face court but pay a maximum fine of €250.

Cabs said that yesterday afternoon its team in Gozo found a massive illegal cage trap with 14 turtle doves and three protected collared doves inside at Tas Salvatur.

The Gozo police were alerted and deactivated the trap.

CABS noted that although the birds were likely wild caught they were neither seized nor released by the officers.