Most of the enforcement officers in the government unit meant to help monitor hunters have flown the coop in recent months, leaving protected birds increasingly vulnerable to illegal hunting, sources said.

The Wild Birds Regulation Unit, which was set up back in 2013, has experienced a “haemorrhage” of enforcement officers for at least a year, the sources said, with almost none left to help the police monitor the countryside for hunting crimes.

The officers left the WBRU’s Specialist Enforcement Branch – which reports crimes to the police – for other government entities without being replaced. This, the sources said, had piled pressure on the remaining staff who have complained of not being able to adequately help monitor the thousands of Maltese hunters.

Attempts to reach the WBRU were unsuccessful. However, one insider in the unit said there had not been too many enforcement officers to start off with, saying that the police had always done the lion’s share of the work.

The complaints of understaffing came as the police launched an investigation into the shooting of at least two Greater Flamingos this week.

Nobody talks about the progress we’ve made

Footage of one badly wounded juvenile flamingo was released by conservationists BirdLife after it was illegally shot down.

Flamingos are a protected species and hunters who target them face a fine of up to €10,000 as well as a possible two-year prison term.

In 2016, two men were jailed for two years and fined €9,000 each for shooting and killing an adult flamingo in Salina.

In two separate tweets, Environment Minister José Herrera and Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri both condemned the shooting and said they hoped the culprits would be apprehended.

Time for a wildlife unit?

BirdLife head Mark Sultana meanwhile said it was time for a dedicated wildlife crime unit to be set up to patrol the countryside and prosecute hunters caught breaking the law.

“The WBRU is without an enforcement unit. I highlighted this to you [Dr Herrera] nearly a year ago,” he said.

Dr Herrera is aware that enforcement of poaching crimes is inadequate, admitting as much to journalists on Friday. 

He said that environmental authorities would soon have an enforcement unit focused solely on protecting wildlife. 

"If you ask me if I’m happy with the way things are, I will tell you no. This is why we have chosen to create this new unit,” the minister said. 

Who is responsible for policing hunters?

Responsibility for cracking down on illegal hunting currently rests with the Administrative Law Enforcement unit of the police – who are meant to receive reports from the WBRU’s own enforcement officials.

However, hunting irregularities are among a long list of responsibilities for the ALE, originally set up “to support the operations of district police officers in their fight against environmental crime”.

A government spokesman said that the possibility of reforming the enforcement framework and increasing resources was a matter of “ongoing discussion”.

“This has been discussed with stakeholders in the past, but a reform cannot be done from one day to the next – one would have to consider different models and see what repercussions there could be to changing the existing set-up,” the spokesman said.

Hunters’ Federation chief Joe Perici Calascione said they condemned all forms of illegal poaching and would look into the case. 

“Hopefully, whoever did this will be caught and prosecuted,” he told Times of Malta. 

He, however, insisted things had been steadily improving.

“Nobody talks about the progress we’ve made as a country over the past 10 years,” he said.