Three cases of illegal turtle dove hunting recorded on Monday, CABS says

Three cases of illegal turtle dove hunting were recorded by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) on Monday morning.

CABS said police officers from the Administrative Law Enforcement were alerted, and subsequently managed to catch two hunters near Selmum, one of them with a “freshly killed dove hidden in his clothing”.

CABS said the two men – together with a minor and another hunter – had been previously filmed by the committee while they fired numerous shots at turtle doves and collected at least one dead bird.

“Both men are expected to be charged with hunting a protected species. Video footage which clearly shows the group aiming at, killing and collecting turtle doves will be submitted as evidence for the case,” the committee said.

CABS said that just before the incident, the birdwatchers were at Xemxija, where members of the public reported shots coming from within the boundaries of the Simar Bird Sanctuary.

“We scanned the trees with a scope and finally found a hunter hiding behind a bush and shooting at passing turtle doves, within the protected zone where no hunting is allowed,” wildlife crime officer Fiona Burrows said.

Burrows said that the police were alerted and the responding officers were shown the position of the poacher on Google Earth. However, she said the man was tipped off, packed his stuff including several dead birds, and ran off. Burrows added that it was not known if the police had identified the poacher.

“Killing protected birds within a bird sanctuary is a very severe offence. We expect the police and WBRU to do their utmost to identify the culprit so he can face trial,” Burrows said.

CABS said its volunteers on Monday afternoon searched a part of the Miżieb woodland, managed by the hunters’ federation. The committee said besides numerous fresh cartridges, an injured turtle dove with typical gunshot injuries was retrieved and later passed on to Birdlife Malta.

The team also witnessed attempts to shoot down turtle doves in Dwejra, San Martin and Wardija.

“The birds were shot at and shot down. There has been a sharp increase in the number of shots fired in the last days, with hundreds heard yesterday and the day before. This comes at the same time when we see the first huge wave of turtle doves arriving here,” CABS said.

The spring hunting season is open until 30 April and the only species that can be shot is quail, with a national limit of 5,000 birds.