Filenews 21 October 2024
The term collateral damage is commonly used to describe human casualties of civilians/innocents in war, reports to Filenews the Senior Officer of the Game and Fauna Service Nikos Kasinis
It refers to illegal trapping with mist nets and limesticks and continues to pose a threat to Cyprus' bird fauna. Because trapping methods are non-selective, over 150 species are known to have been caught with mist nets and limesticks. More than a third (58 species) of these are species that do not have a favorable conservation status.
"Species that are not even the 'object' of this illegal activity are captured and killed in them. The largest species caught in Cyprus was a young Spiny Eagle Aquila fasciata that had been captured on limesticks in Larnaka district and despite efforts to care, did not make it due to stress and exhaustion", notes the Senior Officer of the Game Fund.
Recently, he added, 2 more "lucky" birds, 2 Tyto alba human birds were found in limesticks in Larnaka district, fortunately alive. They were cared for, cleaned of mistletoe and released in the hope of surviving, and not experiencing a similar fate in the future.
It should be noted that one of these two manbirds was ringed by the Game and Fauna Service (visible in the photo with the 2 manbirds) in an artificial nest some kilometers from the trapping point. Ironically, he said, efforts have been made for decades for this species, through artificial nests that have been placed hundreds all over Cyprus, to increase the species in order to control the rodent population in the open air, without the placement of harmful rodenticides.
Unfortunately, some are killing them through this massive and non-selective illegal activity.
Apart from manbirds, all species of owls nesting in Cyprus have been found dead in such traps, either in nets or limesticks. The endemic Cypriot Thupi Otus cyprius, the Koukoufkiaos Athene noctua– the symbol of Goddess Athena, the emblematic Arkothoupos Asio otus are frequent victims of this type of poaching.
In many trapping places these unfortunate victims often lie dead next to nets or "sets", because there is also a prejudice in some trappers that if you release a bird from the net, it will not "catch again".
The use of these methods, Nikos Kasinis suggests, is not a "tradition" but an illegal activity for profit. It is a threat to our natural heritage and should be treated as such.
