Wednesday,
March 06, 2019 - 01:34 PM
A report
has found that more than 52 million wild birds are being killed lawfully by
hunters in Europe each year.
The study
provides data on 82 species of wild bird which may be legally hunted.
The
research paper, which has been compiled by staff from the Committee Against
Bird Slaughter (CABS) is a follow-up to a report which was first conducted back
in 2005.
It makes
official hunting statistics from 24 EU member states plus Switzerland and
Norway available publicly for the first time.
The
authors point out that despite a long-term decrease in the gross number of killings
compared with older data, the bag figures for certain migratory species, such
as Common Pochard, Northern Lapwing, Turtle Dove and Skylark, remain high in
proportion to their declining populations Europe.
Against a
backdrop of declining populations of many affected species, hunting pressures
are undermining conservation efforts undertaken for these species in other
countries.
"The
hunting of birds with rapidly declining populations is not sustainable and
therefore is a clear breach of the European Birds Directive", CABS
Conservation Officer Geraldine Attard, who is one of the authors of the study,
concluded.
Birds
killed lawfully in Europe
1,607,964
Quails,
1,455,208
Turtle Doves,
973,414
Woodcocks,
898,958
Skylarks
522,253
Teal,
205,577
Snipe,
107,802 Lapwings,
The
report is published this week in the journal British Birds.
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