Watch: Injured Greater Flamingo Recovered From Gozitan Coast As Hunting Illegalities Persist
An injured Greater Flamingo, known as Fjamingu in Maltese, was recovered from the island of Gozo this weekend as hunting illegalities persist.
The bird was found swimming at sea off the Gozitan coast between the cliffs of Xlendi and Ta’ Ċenċ, and was brought to shore with the assistance of members of the public, shortly before BirdLife Malta were called on-site.
This comes just days after another injured protected bird was retrieved by the NGO from Buskett, as the Autumn season is open for hunters.
“The targeting of such charismatic species is rife more than ever as the migration of various species peaks during these days. Such illegal hunting occurs for the sole purpose of taxidermy collections with specimens numbering hundreds of thousands amongst the hunting community,” BirdLife Malta said.
The injured flamingo is now being examined by a government vet, after it was retrieved by the BirdLife Malta Head of Conservation Nik Barbara.
“Thanks to recent changes in legislation under Minister for Gozo Clint Camilleri, such killings if undetected by police end up in taxidermy collections and end up as non-prosecutable collections under the guise of legalised transfers from one hunter to another,” the environmental NGO continued.
“The situation is indirectly also permitted with the low amount of police deployed to monitor circa 10,000 active hunting licences. In Malta a maximum of two EPU (Environmental Protection Unit) police units have been encountered despite the need to ensure all-round protection of rare eagles.”
BirdLife continued to stress that the situation with illegal hunting is in a dire state and the permitted persecution of protected species is having a direct toll on conservation efforts on these birds incoming from mainland Europe.
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