Hunting to begin on Sunday for woodpigeons

The hunting season for woodpigeons kicks off on Sunday with hunters expected to set out in their thousands as the game and fauna fund is on its toes.

The season for hunting turtle doves starts two weeks later, on September 4 and for a limited time only due to the recent decrease in their population.

Several thousand euros in fines are expected to be handed out during the hunting season to those who do not comply with regulations.

The most common offence is hunting in a prohibited area, with fines starting at €2,000.

A fine of €2,000 is also handed out to those who fail to renew their hunting license.

Moreover, the phenomenon of poaching, especially at night, carries the steeper fine of €25,000.

For turtle doves only three can be caught per day and not more than 12 for the whole of the hunting season.

In addition, the time frame allowing for the hunt of turtle doves is only 14 days, running until September 18.

Moreover, hunters are expected to declare their turtle doves caught on the Artemis CY app developed by the state to regulate activity and provide useful information to hunters and the general public as well.

Failure to record protected game is punishable by €100 fine for each item not registered.

According to the game and fauna fund, these limitations on turtle doves are applied because “their population in the recent years has been greatly reduced. As a result, a ceiling of 15,700 birds has been set. In order to be in line with EU laws and regulations we have developed an application through which hunters are able to declare what they hunt. In this way the game service will know if the limit has been reached or not.”

Aside from keeping and communicating their hunting records, via Artemis CY, hunters will also be able to see in real time their positioning in relation to prohibited hunting areas.

Moreover, the application enables the user to communicate to the game and fauna department instances of poaching, positions of poisoned baits or lost and found objects.

Each summer hunting season sees approximately 16 to 18,000 hunters renewing their licences.