A study conducted by the Federation for Hunting and Conservation – Malta (FKNK) found that there were 73 illegalities in this year’s spring turtle dove hunting season for turtle doves.

The spring hunting season ran for 14 half days, between 17 and 30 April.

Of these 73, 10 were subject to an administrative fine, 10 were crimes, 19 were unknown culprits, and 34 were reports of shot-protected birds, the FKNK said.

The study also showed that on average there were 3,420 hunters hunting every day. Of these, 2.6% committed illegalities.

On average a hunter would catch 0.29 birds, the survey, which the FKNK said was reviewed by a biologist and a statistician, found.

The FKNK said that the season had a healthy sustainable index of 0.703, which means that over 70% of the ‘opportunity turtle doves’ were not taken by hunters.

The FKNK also conducted a voluntary survey, inspired by a proposal made by the European Commission, for the autumn 2021 and 2022 turtle dove seasons to compare how the number of adults and juvenile doves that were “harvested.”

The results on average indicate that the “harvested juveniles” were 28% and 40% more than the adults for 2021 and 2022 respectively. 

“Thus this juvenile to adult ratio of hunted turtle doves is a positive gauge of the species hunting sustainability in autumn,” the FKNK said.