BirdLife Malta (BLM) recently rescued a young Black Stork with severe leg injuries from a reservoir near the Prime Minister’s official residence in Girgenti, after it was illegally shot by hunters.
The bird was part of a small flock first observed over Gozo, where another Black Stork was reportedly killed in Ta’ Ċenċ.
The Black Stork (Ciconia nigra), a rare and protected visitor to Malta, is safeguarded by Maltese law and EU conservation regulations.
BLM’s Head of Conservation, Nick Barbara, highlighted that illegal hunting persists, partly due to unverified taxidermy collections allowed by two governmental amnesties.
In 1997 and 2003, hunters declared over 500,000 taxidermy birds during amnesties granted by Labour and Nationalist administrations, respectively.
Although authorities began verifying these lists, the process was never completed, leading to unconfirmed claims of protected birds in collections.
This gap has facilitated illegal hunting, with hunters even transferring “wish-list” species among each other.
Under-resourced enforcement entities, such as the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) and Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), struggle to monitor these collections, while the environmental police remain outnumbered by 10,000 hunters.
#MaltaDaily