Updated | White stork ‘shot down in Gozo’, FKNK offers €2,000 reward for information

Gozo police investigating report that two poachers had allegedly shot down a white stork at close range before fleeing off with their kill.

Last updated on 4 October 2015, 8:56am
by Staff Reporter

1 min read

White storks rest in Malta before flying off to Africa. Photo: Raymond Galea

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Police are investigating reports into the fatal shooting of a white stork in Gozo, between Gharb and San Lawrenz.

At around 1:30pm, two poachers allegedly shot and killed the stork at close range and fled with their quarry.

BirdLife conservation manager Nicholas Barbara confirmed with MaltaToday that his organisation received an anonymous phonecall from a resident who had witnessed the incident firsthand and had called the police.

On Friday, a flock of white storks from a Swedish conservation programme landed in Malta, where they were guarded by a BirdLife team. It is unlikely that the stork shot today was one of these nine storks, as they all left the island to continue their migratory voyage to Africa earlier today.

St. Hubert’s Hunters (KSU) president Mark Mifsud Bonnici said that hunters and ornithologists had come together to photograph and enjoy the sight of the storks as they prepared for their journey south.

“The myth that in Malta hunters shoot everything that flies has for years tarnished Malta’s hunters,” he said. “Clearly some do benefit from promoting such perception but facts speak louder than words.”