As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday, 28 September 2017

British bases in Cyprus get drone to fight bird trappers


Posted on 21 September 2017 - 06:46pm

LARNACA, Cyprus: Police on a British military base in Cyprus on Thursday launched their latest weapon in the fight against illegal bird trappers – a high-tech drone.

A recent study by Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said Cypriot trappers killed 2.3 million migrating birds in autumn 2016, up from 1.4 million in 2010.

Size for size that makes Cyprus the second-most deadly bird destination in the Mediterranean, after Malta.

And most of the industrial killing takes place within British military-controlled areas, especially the eastern sovereign base of Dhekelia, outside the south coast resort of Larnaca.
After Cyprus gained independence in 1960, Britain retained sovereignty over two base areas covering some 254km² of the island's territory where it runs its own police and courts.
British authorities said the drone would mainly be used by an action team dedicated to combating illegal bird trapping due to the crystal clear imagery it can generate from great heights at a top speed of more than 80km per hour.


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