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| Manu |
Last August, while looking for a job in one of the
websites I regularly visit, I saw a heading that drew my attention immediately:
"Migratory Birds Conservation on
Cyprus Volunteers".
As a conservation biologist and a keen birdwatcher,
I'm well aware of illegal bird trapping all around the Mediterranean area, so I
decided to send an e-mail asking for information. A few days later I had
already booked the flights.
I arrived at Larnaca International Airport on 8th
October at 20:55, and Edith and Gabriel were already waiting for me. About fifty
minutes later we met Paulina at home, a nice lodge in Protaras.
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| Protaras coast. |
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| Edith Loosli cleaning a female Blackcap |
Edith Loosli is
the camp organizer and MBCC founder, a Swiss woman who has been fighting
against illegal bird trapping in Cyprus for more than 20 years. Gabriel and
Paulina, from the USA and Bulgaria, were the other volunteers.
Our everyday work consisted in patrolling the
Southeastern Peninsula and Cape Gkreko areas, looking for illegal bird
trappers.
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| Coast at Cape Gkreko National Park. |
We used to work chiefly at night and around sunrise and sunset for
two main reasons: 1) it's still really hot in Cyprus in October and 2) the
trappers know both Edith and MBCC's work, so we had to be very cautious not to
be discovered.
Fortunately, Cypriot landscape is very bushy and we usually were
able to spy on the trappers from a quite short distance.
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| A tree ready for illegal bird trapping! Note the wooden steps and the lime sticks. |
Using this procedure, we managed to collect 278 lime
sticks, confiscate 3 decoy devices and save 17 birds in the time I spent in
Cyprus (until 25th October). Most birds were Blackcaps (13), but we also
rescued 3 Willow Warblers and a lonely Reed Warbler.
The question here is: "what do they trap the birds for?" I would say that there are
two kind of trappers: 1) the small
ones, who want to hunt just a few birds for their own consumption, and 2) the big ones, who want to catch as many
birds as possible in order to get money. The latter sell the birds to
restaurants, where they are served as a dish called ambelopoulia, and are the most dangerous. It's easy to find plenty
of information about this disgusting delicatessen
on Google.
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| Coast at Cape Gkreko National Park. |
I think that it's really important to say that police
is very reluctant to cooperate, so we usually did our work independently, and
only turned to police when the situation was especially risky or when there was
a big chance of catching the trapper red-handed.
That said, I'd like to emphasise that Cyprus has not
only illegal bird trappers and corrupt police, but many kind people, plenty of
astonishing landscapes and countless interesting birds (I got seven lifers!)
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| Starred Agama. |
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| Juvenile Masked shrike |
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| Stonechat |
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| Crimson Speckled Moth |
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| Dragonfly |
Below you can find a link to the last MBCC report:
If any of you have any interest in taking part in a
future camp, please let me know.
All the best!
Manu Santa-Cruz
