50% increase in targeted protected birds

More than 70% of the protected birds targeted by illegal hunters since 15 September were shot at in the afternoon hunting hours previously covered by the 3pm hunting curfew.

The data was recorded by BirdLife Malta during its Raptor Camp bird migration monitoring and illegal hunting surveillance activities.

Last autumn, when a curfew prohibited hunting after 3pm between 15 and 30 September, the proportion of protected birds targeted in the afternoon was just 17%.

This represents a 50% increase in targeting of protected birds in the afternoon this year.

"Almost three quarters of the protected birds targeted in the afternoon since 15 September have been birds of prey," said BirdLife Malta Conservation and Policy Officer, Christian Debono.

"These are the very birds the curfew had been shown to protect so effectively."

All birds of prey, or raptors, are protected in Malta under national and international law and Malta is a signatory to several international conventions committing it to protect these birds as they migrate through the islands.

These birds are at their most vulnerable in the afternoon, between 3pm and sunset, when they typically fly low searching for places to roost for the night.

Despite this, and dismissing evidence that the curfew was effectively preventing birds of prey from being killed in the afternoon, the government gave in to pressure from the hunting lobby, which claimed that allowing legal hunting in the afternoon would be the best way to reduce illegal shooting of protected birds, and extended hunting hours up to 7pm this year.

"The government's decision to change the curfew has proved disastrous for protected migrating birds," Debono said. "And this, to give favour to the hunting community that is doing very little to stop the illegalities within its midst."

Raptor Camp teams have also been monitoring hunting intensity in the morning and afternoon since 16 September and found that more than 65% of hunting was taking place in the morning.

"It is a travesty that the lives of protected birds have been sacrificed to give hunters a few more hours to shoot, when it is evident that few legal hunters actually hunt in the afternoon because the turtle dove and quail that can be legally hunted are present mainly in the morning," said Steve Micklewright, BirdLife Malta's Executive Director.

"All that has been achieved by removing the curfew has been to make it easier for illegal hunters to target protected birds of prey with absolute impunity, using the cover of legal hunting hours and shooting."

Micklewright insisted that the roll back of the curfew has failed. BirdLife Malta has called on the government to reinstate it in 2014, before Malta faces further embarrassment for not fulfilling its obligations to ensure protected birds of prey have a safe passage over the Maltese islands."