Illegal killing and taking of birds is a widespread phenomenon and is not primarily restricted to the Mediterranean countries, as often speculated.

Our review has shown that such activities occur on a regular basis in most European countries, although their intensity in the Mediterranean and SE European countries is indeed higher. The rate of occurrence of the most commonly reported illegal activities has shown that no activity is a single country issue. In fact, most of the reported activities occurred in 15 or more countries. The most commonly reported being ‘hunting outside of the legal season’, ‘illegal trade’, ‘illegal trapping’ and persecution for ‘control of predators’.

Bee-eater in nets
Credit: BirdLife Cyprus

By collecting information about the scale of occurrence of each activity within the individual countries and by taking into account the species affected and the expected impact (based on expert judgement) we were able to rank the illegal activities according to their importance. The most important illegal activities were ‘poisoning’, ‘illegal trade’ and the violation of the hunting seasons and protected areas regimes that exclude hunting.

Ranking of illegal killing activities according to their importance

Deliberate poisoning of wildlife appears to be the activity of highest importance, mainly due to its impact on already threatened species (e.g. scavengers) but also because it is increasing in at least nine countries. The free access to poisonous agro chemicals and ineffective control over their use, combined with the existing antagonism toward predators and economic drivers exacerbate the situation, as evidenced in a number of countries.

Finally, we conclude that the conservation and sustainable use of bird populations in Europe is still under serious question.

Sustainability requires at least two key elements: Knowledge and Effective Regulation. Our results show that neither of the two has yet reached satisfactory levels in our region. Therefore, BirdLife considers that all European countries and institutions should contribute much more resources to:

• Systematic monitoring of bird populations and the levels of killing (taking into account all other important threats, including hunting).
• Effective law enforcement based on modern regulation.

• Wildlife poisoning in the Czech Republic
• Poisoning in Spain and Life + Project VENENO
• Poisoning of Eastern Imperial Eagles in Hungary

White-tailed Eagle found poisoned in Ireland
Credit: Valerie O’Sullivan

Further reading:

Review of the Illegal Killing and Trapping of Birds in Europe: A report by the BirdLife Partnership

Contact:

BirdLife Europe

Willem Van den Bossche, Willem.Vandenbossche(at)birdlife.org

Types of illegal killing categories used in the survey

1. Killing / taking of protected bird species

• Random killing of protected species (e.g. vandalism, shooting at roosting owls with air guns)
• Killing/taking for leisure / as part of regular hunting (e.g. poaching, look-alike species)
• Killing/taking for human consumption and the associated trade (e.g. liming or trapping of Passerines for restaurants, traditional recipes)
• Killing/taking of specimens for collections (e.g.birds of prey or herons for taxidermy)
• Killing/taking of eggs for collections (e.g. eggs of rare species of birds of prey such as Egyptian Vulture)
• Killing/taking for control (e.g. birds of prey by gamekeepers, fish eating birds by fish-farmers, bee-eaters by honey producers, etc.)
• Capturing/taking for keeping birds alive (e.g. finches for cage birds, birds of prey for falconry – incl. eggs to be hatched, owls and raptors for pets, etc)

2 Killing / taking of birds outside the legal open season (for “huntable” species for which open and closed seasons are set in legislation)

3 Killing / taking of birds with illegal means or methods (regardless of the species)

• Illegal firearms (e.g. with silencers, night vision scopes, automatic and semi-automatic guns, etc.)
• Illegal traps, nets, snares, lime stick etc.
• Illegal use of poisons/ poisoned baits (targeting directly or targeting other predators)
• Illegal means of transport (high speed boats, shooting from cars, etc.)

 4 Killing / taking of birds within protected areas (where such activities are forbidden)

5 Killing / taking of birds by unauthorised persons (having no official licence or permit)

6 Illegal / unregulated trade of birds

• National / Internal Illegal / unregulated trade of birds and bird products.
• International Illegal / unregulated trade of birds and bird products.