Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

Maltese want to trap 2.6 million finches

Options

Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Birdnuts
    Registered Users Posts: 9,632 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Serious problems across the Med when it comes to the illegal killing of migrant birds. And Malta is far from the only black spot. Such practices are particularly damaging at this time of year with the destruction of immense numbers of potential breeding stock.


  • Options
    #3
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    swifts need our help! wrote: »
    The maltese hunting federation FKNK has called on the government to allow the trapping of 2.6 MILLION (!!!) Linnets, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Siskins, Serins and Hawfinches
    http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/lifestyle/environment/37473/muscat_considers_lifting_trapping_ban#.U0fRdfdwZEa


    can you believe the last paragraph of that report?

    In a report they presented to the government in 2013, the FKNK suggested that taking away trapping would “murder” trapping enthusiasts.

    “The trapper has nothing to look forward to in life… he would have nothing to dream about, pray for, hope for, dress up for… he may fail to perform in work and even in sex, his family and friends relationships will suffer. In fact he might have nothing else to live for. He will suffer mental depression verging on suicidal.”


    am i being dense but why do they trap them? food, to sell?


  • Options
    #4
    Desmo
    Registered Users Posts: 586 ✭✭✭Desmo


    Graces7 wrote: »
    can you believe the last paragraph of that report?


    am i being dense but why do they trap them? food, to sell?

    I once read bits of a booklet about bird hunting in Malta, while waiting in Malta airport to come home from my first and last holiday there. It is a beautiful place but there were almost literally no birds there. It was entitled "The truth about bird hunting in Malta" and was written by the Maltese society for eh protection and hunting of birds. It was ehhhh kind of biased and the justifications were daft. Anyway, it is a major tradition there. It would be like banning Mackerel fishing in Irish harbours every August, except multiplied by 100 (in terms of scale). They do it to eat the birds (I think) and it is something they have always done and they get very defensive about outside influence stopping them. Maybe a closer analogy is turf cutting here except it would be where a quarter of a million turf cutters cut turf every autumn. It really is hard work to stop it. Personally, I despair as it is mindless environmental vandalism but then I too am biased, as a born again birdwatcher.

    In the meantime, publicity is our only weapon. Well done Mark in highlighting this.


  • Options
    #5
    Desmo
    Registered Users Posts: 586 ✭✭✭Desmo


    p.s. they also do it to have cage birds. That daft pamphlet I read justified this by saying the cage birds live longer than the wild ones. This is possibly technically correct but misses the point (or several points).


  • Options
    #6
    GreeBo
    Registered Users Posts: 27,031 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    2.6 million seems like a huge number...but what sort of percentage of the population is that?
    5%?
    50%?
    90%?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    Desmo
    Registered Users Posts: 586 ✭✭✭Desmo


    GreeBo wrote: »
    2.6 million seems like a huge number...but what sort of percentage of the population is that?
    5%?
    50%?
    90%?

    When I was there, it was hard to see a single bird anywhere in the countryside but it is hard to know what that means as it was high summer. If they were all resident birds, then that at a wild guess would be a high percentage of all that is there (20-50% at a wild guess or maybe higher). It must include a lot of migrants in which case, they are shooting our birds on their way to breed.


  • Options
    #8
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    The Maltese are not the only ones! European finches are legally caught in Spain, Italy and Austria and in considerable numbers.


  • Options
    #9
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    wish i hadn't seen this. such fair lovely birds...i had a pair of siskins at my window feeder last year. had to id them as they were new to me. they were a delight

    tradition be blowed; this is the 21st century . we adapted the wren boys tradition


  • Options
    #10
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,068 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Here's a good article about songbird trapping in the Mediterranean that we had to read in University - from the New Yorker and published in 2010 I think. Link to PDF
    Possibly the same article in The Telegraph






  • Options
    #11
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,068 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    GreeBo wrote: »
    2.6 million seems like a huge number...but what sort of percentage of the population is that?
    5%?
    50%?
    90%?

    Those numbers being trapped in Ireland would wipe out, or nearly wipe out, our finch species. Malta is positioned so that in autumn and spring they get birds migrating to and from Africa, so there's a large number moving through and vulnerable to trapping. I have yet to find the figures but I'd say it's more than 5% of the total and individual species being listed there. It's a significant number.

    This report by Birdlife says that birds from 48 countries (36 European, 12 African) and that includes Irish birds, have been found in Malta, so it's not just a case of leaving them at it and it'll be their own loss.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    V_Moth
    Registered Users Posts: 1,423 ✭✭✭V_Moth


    GreeBo wrote: »
    2.6 million seems like a huge number...but what sort of percentage of the population is that?
    5%?
    50%?
    90%?

    Here are the total European figures from "Birds in Europe" by BirdLife International (2004)

    -Chaffinch: 130 to 240 million pairs / 1-2 million in Ireland
    -Serin: 8 to 20 million pairs / None in Ireland
    -Greenfinch: 14 to 32 million pairs / 100,000 to 250,000 in Ireland
    -Goldfinch: 12 to 29 million pairs / 20,000 to 100,00 in Ireland
    -Linnet: 10 to 28 million pairs / 1000,000 to 250,000
    -Hawfinch: 2.5 to 4.2 million pairs / None in Ireland

    I think that limited hunting of these species would not seriously affect their populations, but the levels of hunting in the Med are simply unsustainable. Unfortunately this is acting in combination with other factors such as habitat loss with the result that (for example) Turtle Dove is in serious decline.

    Also, the hunters in Malta don't just shoot the songbirds, but birds of prey, Flamingos and whatever else happens to be flying by. They have also attempted to murder conservation workers (shooting, explosive devices).


  • Options
    #13
    Ulmus
    Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭Ulmus


    Wonderful subversive art by Ghosts of Gone Birds artist Lucy McLauchlan
    http://lucy.beat13.co.uk/tag/ghosts-of-gone-birds/.
    I admire the courage of the volunteers in Committee against Bird Slaughter who do what they can to stop this.
    I remember Vernon Coleman, one-time agony uncle of the Sunday People, recommended a boycott of Malta because of the hunting and trapping of birds.


  • Options
    #14
    siledee
    Registered Users Posts: 60 ✭✭siledee


    The countries mentioned are all EU members.

    Where is the EU meddling when you need it ??


  • Options
    #15
    Desmo
    Registered Users Posts: 586 ✭✭✭Desmo


    http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/malta-hunt-ban909.html#cr
    for example. This is an ongoing battle between the EU and Malta.


  • Options
    #16
    swifts need our help!
    Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    New news from Malta via Chris Packham

    Retweeted Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham):
    We watched 21 Montagus Harriers going to roost . They are now out with torches shooting at them on the ground - it's beyond bloody belief .

    Disgusting


  • Options
    #17
    Ulmus
    Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭Ulmus


    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27108910


  • Options
    #18
    Bsal
    Registered Users Posts: 1,766 ✭✭✭Bsal


    Chris Packham is trying to do something about it

    video blog 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ehOvfA6hls


    video blog 2

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-sJ2HqXJ8


  • Options
    #19
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Well, that's my Maltese holiday plans off the agenda. I won't support that kind of stuff by spending money there


  • Options
    #20
    baaba maal
    Registered Users Posts: 772 ✭✭✭baaba maal


    SpaceTime wrote: »
    Well, that's my Maltese holiday plans off the agenda. I won't support that kind of stuff by spending money there

    I did the same, but I also wrote to the Maltese Tourism authority to tell them that I wouldn't be visiting their otherwise-beautiful island until this medieval past time was stopped. http://www.mta.com.mt/contactus.aspx

    I did the same for the Cypriot tourism body- you could spend your time writing to various government departments but I guess in a place like Malta, the head of tourism has the prime ministers attention. Egypt is in another league altogether (it's very depressing if you haven't read about it already), but at least there it is an important source of protein- in Malta it is a 'delicacy'.


  • Options
    #21
    Bsal
    Registered Users Posts: 1,766 ✭✭✭Bsal


    Episode 3

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFbkpyuKe6E


    Episode 4 (quite sad)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kts8mfLyB50


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    siledee
    Registered Users Posts: 60 ✭✭siledee


    Chris Packham is on the front page of the Daily Telegraph(uk)
    It's just been reviewed on the papers section of Sky News.

    Not read the article but the reviewers said that the hunting lobby complained to the police about defamation and he was held and interviewed by them for four hours.


Advertisement