Updated 4.30pm, adds Birdlife statement
The police are due to press charges against a poacher filmed on Friday in Naxxar hunting with a semi-automatic sports rifle during the closed season.
According to the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, the man was spotted and filmed by one of its teams monitoring the countryside north of Naxxar at around 4pm on Friday.
"As the hunting season is closed at the moment our team immediately started filming the man from a distance. When they zoomed in they realised that the suspect was handling a large rifle which – at the first glance – looked similar to a military-style sniper weapon,” CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld said.
The man also used a professional riflescope and had his weapon placed on an accuracy shooting bag.
The footage shows the man scanning the countryside and subsequently aiming the weapon in the direction of the CABS team.
"We immediately called the police in Naxxar who attended within 25 minutes.
Unfortunately, the poacher had left the hide and drove off before the officers arrived, but we managed to film his face, his weapon and the registration plate of his car", wildlife crime officer Fiona Burrows said.
She added that based on the evidence provided by CABS, the police were able to confirm the identity of the man. He is expected to face trial for hunting during the closed season, carrying and using an automatic rifle not approved for hunting and using a forbidden rifle scope for hunting.
CABS said it was not known if the rifle used by the man in the video had been found and confiscated. It said it showed the footage to weapon experts who identified the rifle as a sport shooting automatic air rifle.
The committee said that, for the time being, its teams would continue to monitor the countryside in Malta and Gozo and report all cases of illegal hunting and bird trapping to the police.
"The case from Friday shows that although the police has limited resources at the moment poachers still can and will be held responsible for their actions", the Bonn-based conservation organisation said.
Rampant illegal hunting and trapping - Birdlife
In a statement later, Birdlife expressed anger at “the rampant illegal hunting and trapping” going on in the countryside.
It said it was still carrying out its work on a daily basis, contending with a number of illegal hunting and trapping incidents.
Every piece of evidence was handed to the police and while these took action in certain cases, this was not possible in others.
Birdlife said that while it understood that because of the present situation the spring hunting season this year would not be opened, a number of birds migrating to Europe to breed were being killed or caught in Malta.
It said it would continue to monitor the situation and called for more responsibility to be shown.