LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) – Conservationists in Cyprus are urging authorities to extend a ban on hunting to a whole network of coastal salt lakes amid concerns that migrant flamingos could swallow lethal amounts of lead shotgun pellets.
Martin Hellicar, director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos run the risk of ingesting the tiny granules found in the lake while feeding. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to aid digestion, but cannot distinguish between pebbles and lead granules.
“Last year we had dozens of flamenco losses,” Hellicar said.
Cyprus is a key stop on the migratory route of many types of birds flying from Africa to Europe. The salt lake of Larnaca, a network of four-lake wetlands, normally hosts up to 15,000 flamingos from colder climates on the southern coast of the island nation in the eastern Mediterranean. They stay in the winter and leave in March. Other waterfowl that frequent the lake include ducks, waders and seagulls.
Hunting is prohibited on most of the salt lake, but hunters are still allowed to shoot ducks at the southern end of the net.
The government’s Wildlife Service says that during the first two months of last year, 96 flamingos were found dead in the wetlands of the salt lake of Larnaca as a result of lead poisoning. The head of the Cypriot veterinary services, Panayiotis Constantinou, who has performed autopsies on flamingos, said the lead from the pellets poisoned the birds.
The high death toll is mainly attributed to the heavy winter rains of two years ago that caused the lake sediment and displaced the embedded lead shot.
A sports shooting range near the northern tip of the lake closed nearly 18 years ago and authorities organized a cleanup of lead pellets in the lake.
But Hellicar says the cleanup was seemingly incomplete. A European Union-funded study is underway to identify where significant amounts of lead pellets are left for disposal. Preliminary results from the study showed “very high” lead levels at the southern end of the wetland and continued duck hunting there could aggravate the problem, Hellicar said.
“The problem is pronounced,” he said. “The danger is real for flamingos and other birds using the area.”
Cyprus Hunting Federation official Alexandros Loizides disagrees, saying hunting in a 200-meter north strip is not a problem due to the limited number of hunters. He said he is unaware of the death of flamingos in the area and that it produces pesticide and fertilizer defects on nearby farms to create pollution problems harmful to wildlife.
“I think the effect of hunting there is very small in the specific part of the lake,” Loizides said. “It would be a shame for hunters to lose the only area where hunting is allowed near wetlands.”
In Cyprus, a ban on the use of lead pellets near wetlands has been in place for several years. A similar EU-wide ban came into force last month, but environmentalists believe the laws are not being enforced enough.
Pantelis Hadjiyeros, head of the hunting and wildlife service, said it is less important to ban hunting in the area than to convince hunters to stop using shells with lead pellets.
“People should be told that the use of lead pellets is prohibited near wetlands and that only steel pellets are allowed,” Hadjiyeros told The Associated Press.