Legal Eagle

Alice Tribe
International
Georgia on my mind
Alice Tribe, RSPB Investigations Assistant, reports
on the illegal killing of birds of prey in Georgia.
The Black Sea resort of Batumi
is an important bottleneck for
migrating birds. More than a million
raptors pass over every autumn,
and this volume of birds presents
temptation to hunters, with many
birds illegally shot.
All birds of prey are protected by
law in Georgia: hunting is forbidden.
But hunting is a deeply rooted
tradition here, and high levels of
unemployment – coupled with little
knowledge of conservation issues
– make it a popular hobby. It’s quite
a poor country, so few Georgians
travel, and they don’t realise that
the vast numbers of birds passing
through is a rare event, and
something not experienced by
those living elsewhere. The hunters
seem unaware that they are doing
anything wrong. Most of the birds
shot are eaten, but many are shot
for amusement.
In September, I went to Georgia
as a volunteer for the Georgian
non-profit organisations, the Society
for Nature Conservation (SABUKO)
and Batumi Raptor Count’s Hunting
Monitoring Project. The project aims
to estimate the scale and trends of
illegal shooting and trapping of
migratory raptors, using a
non-confrontational manner.
The data gathered will be used to
try to reach an agreement between
conservationists and hunters.
One of my duties was monitoring
hunting and trapping activity.
I counted shots heard and hunters
or trappers seen, and recorded the
numbers and species killed, injured
or trapped, as well as hitting and
retrieval rates. There were several
hunting and trapping hides near my
watchpoint, and as time went on,
I began to recognise and know
some of the trappers. They were
extremely friendly, and I joined them
at their hide for food and chacha, a
Georgian brandy. We happily
communicated by hand gestures
and simple words.
One of the popular hobbies in
Georgia is falconry, which has been
practised for more than 2,000 years.
Many men trapped birds, hoping to
catch a new sparrowhawk for their
sport. The trappers catch “their”
new sparrowhawks by tying a
red-backed shrike to a stick as a
decoy, and waving it around in
front of a mist net. The shrike flaps,
and this can catch the eye of a
sparrowhawk, which may well be
captured in the net. Trappers prefer
These three steppe buzzards were among the carcasses left by
the hunters
the larger female hawks, but will
often catch several sparrowhawks
in a good day, and select the best
one for falconry. Some unwanted
sparrowhawks are released again,
and I was given the pleasure of
releasing two back into the wild.
The trappers accidentally catch
other raptor species: I saw a booted
eagle which had been caught. The
hunters told me that it would be
ringed and released. Trappers are
encouraged to ring and release
birds, but those that are not are
killed and fed to the shrikes and
captive hawks.
I also conducted body counts
to obtain an estimate of the
frequencies of the species shot.
We did this by identifying and
counting wings and feathers left
by hunters. Along our transects,
we found many remains of shot
raptors – usually wings and
feathers – as the hunters take the
body for consumption. Occasionally
we found intact carcasses. These
made me realise that the hunting
is not all about subsistence – the
hunters only get to shoot these
birds in autumn, and the rest
of the year there is enough food
for families from garden-grown
products. However, meat is an
expensive luxury, so these raptors
are seen as a good addition to
their diet.
The hunting issue can be tackled.
Two vital elements in the battle to
stop the killing is to educate the
hunters, and raise public awareness.
SABUKO and Batumi Raptor Count
are already working on these.
Georgians are some of the
friendliest people I have ever met,
and I feel it will be beneficial for the
project to keep a good relationship
going between the conservationists,
and hunters and trappers.
For more information, visit the
Batumi Raptor Count website:
www.batumiraptorcount.org
International
A farmer was convicted of poisoning six Spanish imperial eagles, which are listed as Vulnerable
Spanish farmer jailed and
fined for killing eagles
The Spanish court took the poisoning of six Iberian imperial eagles seriously,
imposing a prison sentence as well as a hefty fine and a hunting ban.
Several recent prosecutions in Spain
for wildlife crime offences (featured
in Legal Eagle 77), have shown
the UK and other countries how
seriously raptor persecution can
be taken by courts. This new case
reinforces this approach.
In October 2015, a farmer was
convicted at the Criminal Court
of Ciudad Real for laying out nine
poisoned baits and for poisoning six
Spanish imperial eagles and a fox.
Spanish imperial eagles are listed as
Vulnerable by the International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The defendant was sentenced to
18 months in jail and given a
three-year hunting disqualification.
He was ordered to pay
compensation in respect of liability
of €360,000 (about £254,000) to
the Regional Government of
Castile-La-Mancha due to the
value of the species affected.
The incident was discovered in
January 2012 in the area of Viso del
Marques. Environmental agents
from the research unit created under
the LIFE+ VENENO (poison) project,
co-ordinated by the Spanish BirdLife
partner, SEO/BirdLife (which aims
to significantly reduce the use of
poison in Spain), and the Nature
Protection Service (SEPRONA)
went to the area. Both groups took
their canine units along, and they
managed to find the carcasses of six
Spanish imperial eagles, a fox and
the nine poisoned baits.
During the trial it was proved that
the death of the animals was
caused by poisoning by a powerful
carbamate insecticide. This was
the compound used to lace the
baits which were found. They had
been placed by the accused at his
farm with the purpose of killing
predators that attacked sheep
and chickens at his farm.
David de la Bodega, the LIFE Project
Co-ordinator, said: “The use of
poison is one of the greatest threats
to wildlife and the accused faces
significant sanctions. Society cannot
be indifferent to these heinous acts
and should report possible cases of
use of poisons. The damage has
been significant because of the
number of dead birds and their
conservation status. There are
only 150 pairs of imperial eagles in
Castile-La-Mancha, so the loss of six
birds poses a serious impact on
this species.”
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Roger Tidman (rspb-images.com)