Hunters say over 100 million turtle doves worldwide

St Hubert Hunters say that despite the decreasing population trend, decline is not sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for ‘Vulnerable’ species

In a reaction to the SHout report, hunters from the Kaccaturi San Ubertu ‘deplored’ what they claimed was false propaganda “fed to an uniformed public.”

Mark Mifsud Bonnici said the quota negotiated with the European Commission for the spring derogation by the previous administration was within the 1% of the species mortality rate contemplated by the European Birds Directive and is considered sustainable based on the bird’s Conservation Status and population figures.

“The global populations of these two species as calculated by Birdlife International are that of up to 100 million Turtle Doves of which 25 to 40% form part of the European population. The Quail is even more numerous with up to 300,000,000 individuals of which 5 to 24% in Europe,” he said.

Mifsud Bonnici said these bird’s Conservation Status was evaluated by the International Union of the Conservation of Nature IUCN, referred to by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which states: “Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable. The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion.  For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern”.

“According to European Directives all game birds evaluated as Least Concern can be sustainably hunted under derogation endorsed by the European Court of Justice,” Mifsud Bonnici said.