The LIPU (Italian League for Bird Protection) intervention for the protection of migratory birds that are being killed in the woods nearby Cagliari by illegal traps and nets has begun these days.
Because of the high temperatures and the lack of rain, there’s been a delay of ripening of the fruits that are eaten by birds, and as a consequence very few birds are present at the moment in the woods.
Therefore the number of traps found is relatively low.
The issue is going to escalate as the chill hits. The bird poachers are about to mount the traps in their own paths, since greater profits are earned in conjunction with Christmas holidays.
Unfortunately in that period, many people from Cagliari are in the habit of eating “Pillonis de taccula”, a sort of kebab made of eight birds.
These days a dozen of volunteers are covering the paths made by poachers, destroying all the traps. The traps use loop knots, are set on the branches of the trees or at the bottom of the trees (juniper berries or strawberry tree berries are used as baits).
The paths are present in all the wooded areas of Sulcis (west of the regional capital) and are very widespread in Capoterra, Uta, Assemini and Santadi.
Bird poachers in Sulcis are estimated to be about 200. Each of them makes a path, made of a number of traps that can go from a few dozens (if it’s an occasional poacher) up to many thousands (if it’s a professional bird poacher). The latter earns great profit by selling the animals, especially Song Thrushes, to private individuals or to restaurants. The birds are illegally sold and with no health inspection.
In Sarrabus, located in Eastern Cagliari, illegal bird catching is done by a low number of bird poachers, but the devices used are even more deadly. The birds are captured by huge barriers of fixed nets with non-selective trapping.
The work of the volunteers of LIPU consists in destroying the traps and the nets and in removing the snares made of metal wire for Wild Boars and the Sardinian Deer (these mammals are also illegally sold and considered as precious game).
LIPU highlights that most of the trapping installations are located inside protected areas, such as Parco dei Sette Fratelli and Gutturu Mannu. That makes more serious this destructive and hateful activity which threatens many species, migratory and sedentary.
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