BirdLife Cyprus reveals online bird trapping death toll counter for the current autumn migration
BirdLife Cyprus has just published online (www.birdlifecyprus.org) an estimated death toll from the illegal bird trapping taking place in Cyprus during this autumn migration season. The toll has been estimated on the basis of field data from BirdLife’s ongoing field monitoring of trapping activity with mist nets and limesticks, part of a systematic surveillance programme. This first estimate -89,225 birds- represents the number of birds killed between Thursday 1st September and Sunday 11th September 2011. The estimate will be updated every Monday until the end of October. BirdLife Cyprus is posting this death toll on its website to highlight the urgency of the situation and as a call for action to halt this slaughter!
“We estimate that, so far this autumn, some 89,000 birds have been killed illegally using mist nets and limesticks in Cyprus. We know that the autumn season is the main trapping period and this number is certain to get much bigger over the next 2 months, unless decisive action is taken now to back up enforcement efforts”, said Martin Hellicar, Campaigns Manager of BirdLife Cyprus.
In July, the ‘European Conference on Illegal Killing of Birds’ that took place in Larnaca, concluded with a clear ‘zero tolerance’ message and an urgent call for appropriate measures to stop the bird slaughter. BirdLife Cyprus is now calling for words to be turned into action by all competent authorities at all levels. BirdLife Cyprus is once again calling for decisive action against the restaurants serving the trapped birds, for targeted enforcement against big, organised trapping operations and for tougher sentences for convicted trappers.
In autumn 2010 BirdLife Cyprus estimated that 1.4 million birds were killed by trappers in the Famagusta and Larnaca Districts, an unprecedented death toll resulting in the highest trapping levels recorded since 2002, when BirdLife Cyprus begun its systematic monitoring of trapping activity.
“Such levels of trapping constitute an ecological disaster. Non-selective trapping is taking place on a large scale to feed the demand for banned ambelopoulia delicacies. We want to communicate the scale of this slaughter to the generally indifferent public in order to make them more aware of the issue and its ecological impact”, Hellicar added.
The details of the death toll estimation and the methodology can be found on BirdLife Cyprus’ website, together with information on why bird trapping with mist nets and limesticks is such a big ecological issue.
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http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/09/89225-birds-slaughtered%e2%80%a6so-far-sign-the-petition-to-stop-it-now/?so-far-sign-the-petition-to-stop-it-now/
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