LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) – Conservationists in Cyprus are urging authorities to extend a hunting ban in a network of coastal salt lakes, over concerns that migratory flamingos could ingest potentially lethal amounts of lead shotgun pellets.
Martin Hellicar, director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos are at risk of ingesting the tiny pellets that litter the bottom as they feed. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to aid digestion, but cannot distinguish between pebbles and the lead pellets.
“Last year we lost dozens of flamingos,” said Hellicar.
Cyprus is an important stop on the migration path for many species of birds flying from Africa to Europe. Larnaca Salt Lake, a water-rich network of four lakes, typically welcomes as many as 15,000 flamingos from colder climates all the way to the island’s south coast in the eastern Mediterranean. They stay through the winter and leave in March. Other waterfowl that visit the lake include ducks, waders and gulls.
Hunting is prohibited around most of the salt lake, but hunters are still allowed to shoot ducks at the southern tip of the network.
According to the government’s Game and Fauna Service, 96 flamingos were found dead in the marshes of Larnaca Salt Lake in the first two months of last year as a result of lead poisoning. Panayiotis Constantinou, a Cyprus veterinary officer who performed autopsies on flamingos, said lead from the pellets poisoned the birds.
The high number of deaths is mainly attributed to heavy winter rain two years ago that stirred up the lake’s sediment and released embedded lead shot.
A sports shooting range near the lake’s northern tip was closed nearly 18 years ago, and authorities organized a cleanup of lead pellets in the soil there.
But Hellicar says the cleanup was apparently incomplete. A study funded by the European Union is underway to identify where significant amounts of lead pellets remain for disposal. Preliminary results of the study showed “very high” lead levels in the southern tip of the wetlands, and continued duck hunting there could exacerbate the problem, Hellicar said.
“The problem is over,” he said. “The danger is real for the flamingos and other birds that use the area.”
Alexandros Loizides, official of the Cyprus Hunting Federation, disagrees, saying that hunting in a 200-meter northern strip is not a problem due to the limited number of hunters. He said he is not aware of flamingo kills in the area and makes mistakes with pesticides and fertilizer disposal from nearby farms because of creating pollution problems that harm the wildlife.
“I think the effect of the hunt there is very small on the specific part of the lake,” said Loizides. “It would be a shame if hunters 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 went into effect last month, but conservationists believe the laws are not being enforced enough.
Pantelis Hadjiyeros, head of the Game and Fauna Service, said it is less important to ban hunting in the area than to convince hunters to stop using lead pellet shells.
“People should be impressed that the use of lead pellets is prohibited near wetlands and only steel pellets are allowed,” Hadjiyeros told The Associated Press.