A survey carried out in Egypt has linked Maltese hunters to the killing of protected bird species in the country’s most important national park.
Sources close to the travel industry claim that very few Maltese hunters take firearms with them on their hunting tours to Egypt in order to avoid detection by the police and customs officers. The survey talks about the illicit acquisition of firearms and singles out illegal Maltese hunters as being responsible for the destructive impact on wildlife in a protected area.
The survey of the Gebel Elba National Park cites park rangers from the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). It was carried out after Egyptian enforcement measures to deal with Maltese poachers were severely criticised during a conference in Cairo earlier this year.
“Maltese poachers were seen and caught with two Lappet-faced vultures and other birds at Bir Shalatin,” stated an EEAA ranger. Gebel Elba is the most important area for flora and fauna in Egypt, and can also be classed as one of the least explored corners of the earth. Forty species of birds were reported to breed in Gebel Elba but some of them have since become very rare or even extinct.
Access to the protected area is controlled, and the survey questions how Maltese poachers manage to hunt there illegally. The survey states: “The Maltese killers were caught on Egyptian territory at Bir Shalatin which is a restricted area. They probably used bribery to get through the endless checkpoints. There is also the question of how the poachers get guns and ammunition into the area.”
Rangers at the National Park say that insufficient funding enables poachers to bypass the law: “The Maltese and other poachers also get a thrill out of decimating the wildlife of Lake Nasser. Their attitude is, if it moves, kill it, whether it is a pelican or crocodile. At one time the latter was hunted nearly to extinction.”
The data in the survey is supported by lists of birds confiscated by the Authorities and sent to the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Among the hundreds of locally shot protected birds confiscated by the police and customs and passed over to the museum over the last 18 months were 193 birds protected by law that were confiscated from hunters who had been hunting in North Africa.
The 193 birds are only a proportion of protected species passed over to the museum during this period, as other birds from North Africa confiscated by the police during the last 18 months are still part of ongoing legal cases.
The North African birds come from 35 different species, of which 41 per cent are birds of prey. There are 18 different species of raptor in the collection, including eagles, vultures, falcons, kites and buzzards. While raptors seem to be the preferred target, other birds in the collection show Maltese poachers are also after colourful birds, such as bee-eaters and kingfishers.
The birds confiscated from Maltese poachers also included three chicks of the Pharaoh’s Eagle Owl. The chicks were too young to fly, which means the poachers must have stolen them from the nest and killed them for their collections.
The confiscated birds received by the NMNH confirm again that Maltese hunters travelling to North Africa are having an impact on globally threatened species including those listed under the Global IUCN Red List as ‘Endangered’, such as the Saker Falcon, or ‘Vulnerable’ species – there are nine Lappet-faced Vultures, four Imperial Eagles and two Marbled Teal in the most recent carcasses passed over to the Museum.
Max Farrugia, Chairman of International Animal Rescue in Malta, said that the survey is a step forward for the Eygptian authorities in their efforts to cut down on illegal hunting in one of the bird havens of North Africa. He said “The Maltese poachers have very good contacts in Egypt from where they can get the guns and cartridges, and also store their skinned birds in freezers until the right opportunity comes along to smuggle them out of the country. On some occasions the skins are smuggled out by an Egyptian courier. The Malta police and customs officials have names of individuals who in the past are suspected to have served as couriers. If there is more co-operation between the two countries the illegal hunting can certainly be drastically reduced.”