Birdlife Malta took to social media to share a video of an adult greater flamingo which was rescued from Gozo.
‘The bird was found swimming at sea off the Gozo coast between Xlendi and Ta’ Ċenċ and was brought to shore with the assistance of members of the public’, Birdlife revealed.
‘The targeting of such charismatic species is rife more than ever as the migration of various species peaks during these days. Such illegal hunting occurs for the sole purpose of taxidermy collections with specimens numbering hundreds of thousands amongst the hunting community.’
The NGO wrote how due to recent changes in legislation, ‘such killings if undetected by police end up in taxidermy collections and end up as non-prosecutable collections under the guise of legalised transfers from one hunter to another.’
‘The situation with illegal hunting is in a dire state and the permitted persecution of protected species is having a direct toll on conservation efforts on these birds incoming from mainland Europe.’
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