LARNACA, CYPRUS (AP) – Nature conservationists in Cyprus are calling on the government to extend a hunting ban in a coastal saltwater network amid concerns that migrating flamingos could swallow lethal amounts of lead gun pellets.
Martin Hellicar, director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos are in danger of taking the small grains on the lake while feeding. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to promote digestion, but cannot distinguish between pebbles and the lead grains.
“Last year we had dozens of losses to flamingos,” Hellicar said.
Cyprus is an important stop on the migration route for many species of birds flying from Africa to Europe. The Larnaca Salt Lake, a wetland network of four lakes, welcomes mostly 15,000 flamingos from colder climates to the south coast of the island island in the eastern Mediterranean. They stay through the winter and leave in March. Other waterfowl that visit the lake include ducks, waders and seagulls.
Hunting is prohibited around most of the salt lake, but hunters may still shoot ducks in the southern tip of the network.
The government’s wildlife and animal service says in the first two months of last year, 96 flamingos were found dead in the wetlands of Larnaca in Salt Lake due to lead poisoning. Panayiotis Constantinou, an official of the veterinary services of Cyprus, who performed autopsies on flamingos, said lead from the grains poisoned the birds.
The large number of deaths is mainly attributed to heavy winter rains two years ago that raised the sediment of the lake and unleashed built-in pilot shot.
A sports shooting range near the northern tip of the lake closed nearly 18 years ago and authorities have arranged a cleanup of lead pellets in the lake there.
But Hellicar says the cleanup was apparently incomplete. A European Union-funded study is underway to determine where significant amounts of lead granules remain so that they can be removed. Preliminary results from the study showed that ‘very high’ lead levels were in the southern tip of the wetland and that continued duck hunting there could exacerbate the problem, Hellicar said.
“The problem is being addressed,” he said. “The danger is real for the flamingos and other birds that use the area.”
Alexandros Loizides, official of the Hunting Federation of Cyprus, disagrees and says that hunting in a northern part of 200 meters is not a problem due to the limited number of hunters. He said he was unaware of the deaths of flamingos in the area and that pesticides and fertilizer runoff from nearby farms were faulty due to pollution problems affecting wildlife.
“I think the effect of hunting there is very small on the specific part of the lake,” Loizides said. “It would be a disgrace for hunters to lose the only area where hunting is allowed near wetlands.”
A ban on the use of lead pellets near wetlands has been in place in Cyprus for several years. A similar EU-wide ban came into effect last month, but conservationists say the laws are not being enforced enough.
Pantelis Hadjiyeros, head of the game and animal service, said it was less important to ban hunting in the area than to persuade hunters to stop using shells with lead pellets.
“It should be instilled in people that the use of lead grains near wetlands is prohibited and that only steel grains are allowed,” Hadjiyeros told The Associated Press.