Maltese hunters who practice indiscriminate hunting in one of Egypt’s biggest National Park, Gebel Elba. (Photo: David Conlin/CABS)
Karl Stagno-Navarra
'Crazy fanatics' is the crude description given to Maltese hunters by Egypt's most respected bird specialist and co-founder of Nature Conservation Egypt.
Mindy Baha Eddin, from the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), denounced the hundreds of Maltese who flock to Egypt every year to exploit the unregulated hunt for all kinds of birds.
Writing in the 'Egypt Independent' this week, marking the close of the hunting season in the country, Eddin says she witnessed atrocities committed by hunters from Malta and Cyprus.
"They literally shoot at anything that moves, protected or not," she said - adding that she personally noticed with other bird-watchers "Maltese hunters carrying garbage bags full of dead birds".
Eyewitnesses in Abu Simbel also told Eddin about flocks of flamingos taken down by Maltese hunters standing on inflatable boats, and scenes of wounded birds splashing all around Lake Nasser.
"Maltese hunters are crazy fanatics," she says, "and they have been bird hunting in Egypt for decades, because Egypt has interesting-looking birds compared to its neighbours".
According to Egyptian environmental consultant Sherif Baha el-Din, the damage caused by the foreign hunters in Egypt is "tremendous."
"They hunt for trophies and private collections," Sherif says, explaining that they often skin the birds before leaving Egypt to hand over to taxidermists at home.
"They have become increasingly cautious with time, and today to avoid the skins being intercepted at customs, they label them as agricultural produce and travel in a different plane than the birds' skins."
Also, the hunters now rent shotguns directly in Egypt and don't need a special permit to bring their weapons into the country.
"That Egypt does not have a body to monitor local illegal hunting is something, but to be unable to track this small number of foreign hunters and make sure they don't kill protected species in incredible numbers is questionable," he said.
This is not the first time conservationists have pointed fingers at organised trips involving Maltese hunters, claiming they were responsible for widespread slaughter of protected species.
Last year, an article in the Egypt Independent observed that "Egypt's rich and varied wildlife is also threatened, to a lesser extent, by Maltese hunters who practice indiscriminate hunting in one of Egypt's biggest National Park, Gebel Elba".
The same article quoted Baha Eddin saying that Maltese poachers were caught with two lappet-faced vultures and other birds at Bir Shalatin, although access to the park is controlled.
"Baha al-Din, who is well aware of the Maltese poachers' story, explains that these hunters kill birds and mammals indiscriminately before smuggling them out of the country to add them to their private stuffed animals collection."
Earlier still, International Animal Rescue raised the alarm over hundreds of bird carcasses imported illegally to Malta, from Egypt among other countries.
In August 2003, four men were arrested at customs after two of them were allegedly found in possession of about 700 skins of protected birds and 23 mammals and three reptiles on their return from Cairo via Athens. The value of the haul is estimated to have exceeded Lm30,000, the police said. Customs officers said this was the biggest single haul of skins made at any one time.
Separately, Belgian bird protection magazine 'L'homme et l'oiseau' (Man and Bird) carried a four-page article, claiming that Maltese hunters go on tours and pose as tourists, booking via internet, then rent guns in Egypt and decimate bird life in several areas from Port Said in the North to Abu Simbel, close to the Sudan border.
"Birdwatchers who visited Abu Simbel (in the Aswan province) and Lake Qarun in the El Fayoum province, saw uncontrolled bird hunting, particularly by Maltese hunters. A bird watcher who has repeatedly visited Egypt said bird populations at Lake Nasser, near Abu Simbel, as well as at Lake Qarun, in the Fayoum region, have been decimated by the hunters," the article stated.