Cyprus urged to ban hunting to protect flamingos

Conservationists in Cyprus are urging authorities to expand a hunting ban throughout a coastal salt lake network, amid concerns that migrating Greater Flamingos could swallow lethal quantities of lead shotgun pellets.

Martin Hellicar, the director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos were at risk of ingesting the tiny pellets lying on the lake bed as they fed. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to aid digestion but cannot distinguish between pebbles and the lead pellets.

Around 15,000 Greater Flamingos winter at Larnaca Salt Lake in Cyprus (Angelo Formentin).

Cyprus is a key stop on the migration path for many types of birds flying from Africa to Europe. Larnaca Salt Lake, a wetlands network of four lakes, typically welcomes as many as 15,000 flamingos from colder climates. They stay through the winter and leave in March.

Hunting is banned around most of the salt lake, but hunters are still allowed to shoot ducks around the southern tip. The government's game and fauna service said that in the first two months of last year, some 96 flamingos were found dead in the Larnaca Salt Lake wetlands as a result of lead poisoning.

The high number of deaths is mainly attributed to heavy winter rain two years ago that stirred up the lake sediment and dislodged embedded lead shot. A sport shooting range near the lake's northern tip closed nearly 18 years ago and authorities organised a clean-up of lead pellets in the lake bed there.

A European Union-funded study is underway to identify where significant amounts of lead pellets remain so they can be removed. Preliminary results of the study showed very high lead levels in the wetlands' southern tip, and continued duck hunting there could compound the problem.

A ban on the use of lead pellets near wetlands has been in force in Cyprus for several years. A similar, EU-wide ban took effect last month but conservationists believe the laws are not being enforced properly.