Frenzy

Conservation groups have criticised Malta for failing to stop "rogue" hunters killing protected bird species, writes Mark Kinver for the BBC:

During a two-week monitoring programme, BirdLife Malta said it treated 17 birds of prey suffering from gunshot wounds. Large numbers of birds pass over the Mediterranean island, which lies along a major migratory route between Europe and Africa. Malta's hunting group said that it would take action against anyone found to be killing protected species.

"On good days for migration, when several hundred birds of prey pass through, the hunters are stirred into frenzy - desperate to shoot as many as possible, even within protected areas," said Grahame Madge, from the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

"To anyone who has not seen it for themselves, the scale of the slaughter beggars belief." Mr Madge added that he believed that a "rogue element" of the island's hunters would "blast at anything that flies"...