Four cases of illegal trapping have been filmed since Saturday, and the subsequent police action resulted in the seizure of several large clap nets as well as nine live and two artificial bird decoys, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said today.
On Saturday morning a CABS team were alerted to a trapper in St. Thomas' Bay who was attempting to attract protected wader species by means of an illegal bird caller. The police were notified by the team and seized a 40 m long net. Legal proceedings had been launched.
On Monday morning the conservationists discovered an active trapping site near Bahrija, where a trapper was attempting to catch protected Dotterel (Birwina).He was using plastic decoys as well as an electronic device playing Dotterel calls. A video recorded the man trapping and a copy was handed over to the A.L.E. as evidence. The police subsequently searched the site and seized other items for evidence.
CABS said a real cops and robbers chase took place on Tuesday as police raided the site of a song bird trapper near Zurrieq. Following a tip-off from Birdlife Malta a CABS team had filmed the man for hours from a hide, and obtained footage of the man trapping protected larks and pipits.
The man saw the approaching police patrol and took to his heels, scrambling over a high stone wall to make his escape. His flight was however in vain as the police were later able to identify him easily from the CABS film.
A search of the trapping site discovered five live Short-toed Larks (Bilbla) and a Red-throated Pipit (Dizz Ahmar), all of which were seized and later released into the wild. Two of the birds had been caught a very short time before.
CABS praised the rapid reaction of the police but criticised their decision not to confiscate the nets or to search the man's premises for further protected bird species.
CABS spokesperson Axel Hirschfeld said: "Protected birds have been seized at this same trapping site three times already in the past 12 months. The fact that illegal trapping continues here, despite ongoing investigations, demonstrates just how fanatical these trappers are".
A further seizure of protected species was made yesterday afternoon near Ghadira San Raflu (Gozo), where a CABS team filmed a trapper catching waders over a number of hours. Officers from Victoria police station who were called to the scene found the trapper still in his hut and seized his nets as well as three live Dotterel.
The CABS videos will be available for viewing on Youtube in the course of the next days.
In addition to checks of trapping sites CABS teams have also observed and reported numerous cases of illegal hunting and have found several shot birds including a Kestrel (Spanjulett) and a Nightjar (Buqrajq). This morning the conservationists said they were appalled to witness the killing of two Honey Buzzards (Kuccarda) and a protected wader species being shot at south of Girgenti valley.