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Sir,
As a campaigner against the slaughter of small migrant birds, and not only in Cyprus, I receive a lot of mail. A recent letter from Karsten Doerfer, of Germany, provides a cameo of the hunt - or perhaps a mirror in which those described might not care to recognise themselves.
Herr Doerfer has permitted me to translate and quote his letter:
"I travel with my family to Cyprus almost every spring. The island (the Republic, I don't know the Turkish-occupied part at all) is then knee-deep in empty shotgun cartridges.
I have experienced the hunting season in winter - an absurd spectacle. Picture a five-year-old boy in his Sunday best on the family picnic, shooting at tin cans set up on boulders with daddy's or uncle's shotgun, almost bigger than he is.
Or pick-ups jam-packed with men in camouflage suits ... intoxicated and bawling.
They prefer to parade in game and nature reserves, shooting at anything that moves, be it bird, lizard, or snake - the latter being the most popular; or rather the most hated. If all else fails, locusts or pine cones swaying in the wind will do.
Most popular of all, when everything else has either taken flight or is 'dead', are warning signs. Top of the list are the 'nature trail' signs on the Akamas, with 'game reserve' a close second.
The end of the hunting season doesn't mean an end to the slaughter. The 'quiet' killing goes on. Take a well-documented and internationally recommended wetland birding spot beside the main road, where one can regularly find between five and 30 birdwatchers with telescopes observing songbirds.
Only five to 10 metres away in a thicket, into which few have the guts to go, one finds limesticks with feathers stuck to them and on one, still living and struggling, one of the island's endemic birds, the Cyprus Wheatear (Oenanthe cypriaca), which we carefully remove, clean and release."
Only those tourists who come to Cyprus on the principle "take only photographs, leave only footprints" are likely to leave the crowded resorts and beaches to experience such scenes. The number of eco-tourists is growing however, and will soon represent a significant percentage of paying guests in Cyprus and the Mediterranean area. Politicians and businessmen would do well not to ignore this.
With best wishes for a peaceful 2002 - for the birds as well.
David Conlin
Proact International,
Marathonallee 16, Berlin, Germany
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