BirdLife Malta’s patrol numbers have dwindled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, representatives of the NGO told The Malta Independent.

Spring hunting season in Malta will last until 30 April, during which time the Common Quail is the only bird which can be legally hunted. Despite this fact, other birds like the turtle dove – a species at risk of extinction, are also being shot down. Turtle doves use Malta as a stepping stone on their migration journey from Africa to European regions such as Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic. Turtle dove numbers have plummeted by 80% in the last 30 years and are steadily declining.

BirdLife Malta, as it does during every hunting season, patrols hunting spots daily, in order to capture any illegal shootings, particularly of turtle doves, on camera. The Malta Independent observed two BirdLife patrol teams on Thursday morning to see what they go through on a daily basis. While no illegal shootings were sighted on the morning in question, the BirdLife Malta team gave a comprehensive overview of the spring hunting season this year, how the season has been affected by Covid, and how police officers are responding to illegal shootings.

This newsroom met BirdLife Malta’s Head of Conservation Nicholas Barbara in Imtahleb, Rabat.

Under normal circumstances, BirdLife Malta would be joined by around 15 to 20 volunteers during the entirety of the spring hunting season. With Covid-19, numbers of individuals on illegal hunting patrols has dwindled.

Whereas typically five teams would be on patrol, only one or two BirdLife Malta teams are on watch this year.

“To make matters worse, most of our volunteers come from the United Kingdom and they would need to quarantine upon arrival. This is all to the advantage of the hunters”, Barbara said.

Currently, a maximum of four people are allowed to meet in public together. Barbara said this has made it harder for individuals to patrol together.

“It has affected us quite a lot, to the advantage of the hunting community, who are still out and about. It’s not affecting them, hunting is still going on”, he said.

The low number of BirdLife patrollers also entails that less hunting grounds are monitored.

“When you’re limited, it’s quite difficult to monitor each and every place every day. We’re very much thinly spread at the moment”, he said.

Quail, he explained, typically move at night and stay in vegetation until they are flushed out by the hunters’ dogs. Turtle doves, on the other hand, move by flying high in the sky. As a result, hunters need to search for quail to get them, whereas turtle doves are killed by shooting at the sky, where the doves fly overhead.

It is possible to tell which bird is being hunted based on the shots heard, Barbara added. Quail is typically marked by single shots, whereas turtle doves are marked by multiple, consecutive shots fired at the sky.

“Fast repeated shots are hunters trying to shoot something that is moving fast, like turtle doves”, Barbara said.

A few turtle doves were spotted flying overhead and multiple shots from hunters were heard, however no turtle doves were shot down.

“Even though on paper it says only quail can be hunted, it’s actually turtle doves some are out for”, Barbara said. “They all admit that the number of turtle dives has declined. They’re contributing to the demise of their own pastime”.

Later in the day, after members of the newsroom had left the BirdLife crew, Barbara told this newsroom that the second team on patrol close to Imtahleb successfully managed to capture a hunter shooting a turtle dove on camera.

The footage has been sent to the police to conduct a search into the matter, he said.

Incidentally, the team also received a report of a shot turtle dove in Wardija later on in the day.

Police Presence

If an illegal shooting is caught on camera, BirdLife Malta will send the footage to the police. Footage alone, however, is not enough to confirm illegal activity.

“Unless the police find the shot bird on the hunter, then there’s nothing to be done”, Barbara explained. “The hunter will shoot because he knows that he can somehow get away with it. He can get the birds, hide them somewhere and get away with it. We’re monitoring and trying to get the evidence needed for there to be prosecutions,” he said.

Barbara said that the police will occasionally drive or walk through hunting spots, however it’s hard for them to catch hunters without closely monitoring them. In this way, many hunters shooting protected birds go unnoticed, he said.

Police presence has been especially insubstantial in Gozo, Barbara noted. With Covid restrictions to crossover to Gozo during the season, less police officers are present on the island. This has been to the advantage of hunters.

“In Gozo, you have a lot of Maltese hunters who book land where they will stay the whole 3 weeks there because there is less enforcement”, Barbara said.

“You might see an EPU unit going around with a vehicle in Malta, but not in Gozo, unless there is one of us reporting something. The police will just stay in their station”, he said.

Many individuals who do see incidents of illegal hunting also hesitate to contact the police, he added. BirdLife Malta has received calls from people saying that their car tyres have been slashed and their pets have been killed because they reported illegal hunting incidents to the police, Barbara said.

“We have people in Gozo telling us they are on the edge of a valley, surrounded by hunters and they’re seeing turtle doves being shot. And even though I urge them to film and report the incidents to the police, they’re afraid as everyone knows each other”.