Poachers endanger rare eagles, as well as €700,000 project

Raphael Vassallo
The fate of two endangered lesser-spotted eagles, currently being tracked via satellite as part of a €700,000 EU-funded conservation programme, hangs in the balance after the birds are feared to have chosen the central Mediterranean migratory route, which would bring them within range of Malta’s shotguns at the peak of the hunting season.
The eagles in question originate from the Brandenberg region in Germany, where the species has registered a sharp decline in the past two decades. There are now an estimated 100 pairs still breeding in the wild.
“The pair we are tracking were last recorded flying over southern Italy in the direction of Sicily on Sunday,” Dr Bernt Meyburg, director of the Germany-based research programme, told MaltaToday. “We are all hoping that they take the longer route over Tunisia,” he quickly added.
But owing to the expense of the tracking system, there is a two- to three-day lag between reports of the birds’ position. “We will not know whether they have safely crossed the Mediterranean until Thursday,” an audibly concerned Meyburg said over the phone.
According to BirdLife Malta, a group of five lesser-spotted eagles were sighted flying in over Malta on Sunday. It is not known whether the two tagged specimens, both juveniles, were among their number. Nor is it clear whether the five endangered birds succeeded in getting away from the island, where BirdLife Malta claims as many as 257 cases of illegal hunting since September 5.
“They dispersed soon after arriving,” Dr Andre Raine, BirdLife’s conservation said on Monday. “We kept track of them until they roosted in different parts of the island. But then we lost them. We can only hope they got away.”

Unprotected species
At least one lesser spotted eagle was not so lucky over the weekend: it was shot and killed in Buskett – a bird sanctuary – on Saturday afternoon. Two hunters have been arraigned in connection with that case, but BirdLife Malta argues that there has not been anywhere near enough enforcement this season.
The Administrative Law Enforcement Agency, with its 28 members, remains woefully under-resourced to tackle the problem of illegal hunting. And German conservation NGO CABS (Campaign Against Bird Slaughter), currently in Malta to monitor hunting excesses, has decided to extend its scheduled stay.
Ironically, the season for raptor migration, which normally peaks in mid-October, has yet to get under way in earnest.

When eagles die
Dr Meyburg and his team have been recording the breeding, migration and territorial habits of the highly vulnerable lesser-spotted eagle since 1992. In that time they have seen the German population dwindle by around 60 specimens.
The species is native to the Brandenburg region, where a single pair of eagles normally stakes a territory of up to 300 square kilometres. These birds also take longer than others to reach maturity, and only raise two or three fledglings a year. For these reasons, the loss of even a single specimen can deal a serious blow to its prospects of long-term survival in the region, already under threat from pesticides, loss of natural habitat and other causes.
Migration therefore poses great risk to these birds, even without the added danger posed by Maltese hunters.
“It is in fact very unusual for the lesser spotted eagle to take the central Mediterranean route over Sicily and Malta,” Dr Meyburg said.
Around 99% of the European population normally migrates via the Bosphorus and over Syria, Lebanon and Israel, to enter Africa through Egypt. Israel is the only country in the world to have totally banned hunting; although the concern there has arguably more to do with the country’s internal security problems, than with wildlife conservation.
But the two young specimens currently being tracked have opted to take the shorter but more dangerous central Mediterranean route.
“This route forces birds to fly long distances over the open sea,” Meyburg said. “This is particularly problematic for birds of prey, as they require thermals (currents of rising warm air) to gain quota.”
By inference this also means that the birds would be exhausted upon arriving at Malta, combining with lax enforcement to make these endangered eagles easy targets for trigger-happy Maltese hunters.

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