Okay, let’s see how the FKNK – the mouthpiece for Malta’s internationally discredited and reviled hunting ‘community’ – spins THIS piece of disgraceful news: “Researchers studying the Cory’s Shearwater (Ciefa) colony in Gozo as part of the EU LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project, found one of the study birds dead in front of its nesting burrow last week. The X-ray taken by a veterinarian confirmed that the protected bird had been shot”.
EU PROJECT HAMPERED AS STUDY BIRDS ARE LOST FROM THE COLONY
Researchers studying the Cory’s Shearwater (Ciefa) colony in Gozo as part of the EU LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project (1), found one of the study birds dead in front of its nesting burrow last week (Photo). The X-ray taken by a veterinarian confirmed that the protected bird had been shot.
Cory’s Shearwater shot dead in Gozo. Photo by Ben Metzger
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The researchers also noticed that up to four other birds from two different nests at the study site had disappeared. One of these nests was empty, while the other one still contained an egg.
The Cory’s Shearwaters are currently incubating and both the male and the female take it in turns to sit on their single egg. If a nest is found empty, it means the egg has been lost and the pair’s only breeding attempt for this year has failed. An abandoned egg suggests that either one or both parent birds have died, as during incubation one of them is always in the nest.
LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project is co-funded by the European Commission and the Maltese government as well as several BirdLife International partners.
“The killing of the study birds in Gozo not only hampers the efforts of this EU Project, but also puts the whole colony in peril. Seabirds are already declining all around the world and direct persecution can only make their situation worse,” said Dr Benjamin Metzger, Chief Researcher of the LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project.
This is the third shot Cory’s Shearwater to have been found by the project researchers this year.
Malta is home to internationally important breeding colonies of three species of seabirds, including the Cory’s Shearwater. LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project aims to identify the important areas for these species at sea and create marine protected areas under the EU law.
Ends
For more information contact:
Ms Laura Bambini, LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project Manager
Mobile: + (356) 99683916
Office: + (356) 21 347644-5
email: laura.bambini@birdlifemalta.org
The BirdLife Malta website: http://www.birdlifemalta.org
BirdLife Malta is part of an international network of fully co-ordinated ringing stations and National Ringing Schemes that have been indispensable for the efficient management of scientific bird ringing in Europe. We are the leading voice in ensuring that Malta’s hunters WILL conform with EU Directives and spring hunting will be banned in accordance with those directives. Birdlife Malta currently manages two nature reserves, Ghadira and Is-Simar, and also joint manages an afforestation project known as Foresta 2000 (located adjacent to Ghadira): the two nature reserves are both Ramsar-designated wetland areas and represent the largest free-standing sources of in Malta.
