At least 62 illegally shot protected birds were reported as the 2017-2018 autumn hunting season comes to an end, Birdlife has said. They said that once again hunting illegalities were on the rise whilst enforcement was again very low.

They also said that this was the worst hunting season for illegalities in the past five years.

This news comes on the back of the Ornis Comittee giving its go-ahead for the next spring hunting season with the dates and parameters to be set by the end of this month. 

BirdLife Malta was the only representative to vote against this plan.

The spring hunting season will open only for Common Quail as the spring hunting of Turtle Dove is still subject to a moratorium after the species was classified as vulnerable.

During the latest autumn hunting season BirdLife Malta held its annual Raptor Camp to monitor illegal hunting during the peak migration, and have even launched a video on the Raptor Camp’s work, which you can view below.

What do you think of so many protected birds being shot this year?

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]