Скачать или смотреть FKNK official caught on camera shooting at protected Turtle Dove

On 16th April, five days before the closure of the 2018 spring hunting season, our Spring Watch teams were out monitoring illegalities at FKNK-managed Miżieb and noticed a hunter sitting in a hide.

Miżieb is not an area normally associated with Quail which was the only legally huntable species this spring since hunting on the protected and red-listed Turtle Dove was for the second year running not allowed due to a moratorium.

Apart from that, the method used to hunt for Quail differs a lot than that employed to hunt Turtle Dove. Whereas Quail is flushed from the ground, to hunt for Turtle Dove hunters sit and wait for their prey in the hide and then shoot at it in the sky when it flies over.

Sure enough, the hunter being monitored was at one point observed standing up from the hide, raising his gun and shooting three times. The bird was seen falling out of the sky soon after.

It was immediately clear that since the hunter did not flush any birds from the ground (with Quail - which is flushed in this manner - being the only huntable species this spring and all other birds are protected), he was probably shooting at a protected bird. In fact our teams immediately identified the shot bird as a Turtle Dove.

Upon closer inspection of the footage it later transpired that the hunter involved in this case of illegal hunting was FKNK official Lawrence Vella who represents the hunting lobby on the sub-committee responsible for the management of Miżieb.

This footage, together with several other footage of similar incidents, were today passed to the police for further investigation.