This document provides historical context on bird hunting traditions in Malta. It discusses how bird hunting began as a subsistence activity but became a recreational sport for elites in the 1800s. In the late 1900s, economic growth led to a surge in hunting licenses as more people took up the hobby. However, the document notes that excessive and indiscriminate killing of birds has become problematic, threatening populations of many vulnerable species that use Malta as a migratory stopover point. It analyzes tensions between conservation groups and hunters, and examines the macho culture that has developed among some modern hunters in Malta.

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Aim for the sky
Scrutinizing ecological intervention through
ethical, cultural and historical analyses of bird
hunting in Malta
Nifemi Madarikan

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Introduction
The indiscriminate slaughter of birds along the European-African migratory flyway
by Maltese hunters is a relatively recent phenomenon that owes its persistence to a
confluence of economic, environmental, and socio-political peculiarities. Though directed
killings of increasingly vulnerable bird species are labelled as ‘tradition’ by hyper-macho
young men wearing commando trousers and ammunition belts, bird shooting in Malta did
not become so wildly excessive until after the 1970s when the number of Maltese hunting
license holders boomed alongside national economic growth. Demonized by domestic and
international media alike for its ecological repercussions, bird shooting along the European-
African migratory flyway is now framed as a nationally divisive ecological crisis ripe for
conservationist intervention (Cacciotolo 2015).
Tensions between Maltese hunters and bird conservation NGOs have continued to
rise over the past decade, leading some scholars to attempt to “understand delicate contexts
such as this where conservation NGOs, hunting associations and the State have ended in
political deadlock” (Brian Campbell 2015). Perhaps these tensions can be attributed to
contentious politics; when discrete entities attempt to shape their shared environment along
different visions, it is reasonable to assume incongruent incentives and methods will precede
conflict. In The Lie of the Land, Leach and Mearns acknowledge the contentious politics of
conservation and warn against ‘received wisdom’ which disregards indigenous perspectives
and “obscures a plurality of other possible views, and often leads to misguided or even
fundamentally flawed development policy” (Leach and Mearns 1996, 3). This critical
awareness of ‘received wisdom’ will prove essential in restructuring bird hunting in a way

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that is ecologically commendable while still respectful of local Maltese opinion and tradition.
However, one must not lose sight of the enormities of Maltese bird hunting; researchers
believe such excessive violence could yield devastating consequences for birds from “a
minimum of 36 countries” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016) with rare or declining
populations. Though one of the most common birds in Europe, the chaffinch is now “all but
absent” (Franzen 2010) in Malta due to the country’s widespread illegal finch trapping. In
the absence of thoughtfulness, fair chase, and conscientiousness, Jan E. Dizard asserts that
“Shooting and killing, in this scheme of things, is not hunting” (Dizard 1994). While the
intervention policies criticized by Leach and Mearns are premised on “culturally constructed
paradigms that at once describe a problem and prescribe its solution” (Leach and Mearns
1996, 8), bird hunting in Malta has become wildly destructive and must be curbed.
Furthermore, local media and literature reveal some indigenous perspectives are already
aligned with conservationist sentiments. (Fenech 1997). Having identified an opportunity to
reconcile diverse perspectives through social, ecological and historical analyses, I will make
steps towards the restructuring of bird hunting in Malta as an ethical assemblage of
recreation, tradition, and conservation.
Situating Maltese bird shooting in time and tradition
Easy as it may be to attribute the atrocities of Maltese bird shooting to deep-rooted,
culturally pervasive patterns of wildlife exploitation, historical analyses reveal recreational
bird hunting to be a strictly modern indulgence. Before the 1800s, birds were mostly hunted
‘for the pot’, if at all; the islands’ earliest settlers from around 7,000 BP were agriculturalists
who occasionally supplemented their diet with hunted meat. A few sling-stones and spear-

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heads dated 3,000 BC have been found across the islands, but in such small quantities that
archeologists and historians conclude hunting “was not an important feature of daily life in
prehistoric Malta” (Fenech 1997, 11). Furthermore, that bird shooting is “practically absent
from folklore” (Fenech 1997, 131) implies shooting is not a pastime embedded in Maltese
culture. That said, though there is little information about bird shooting between before the
14th century, medieval records show falconry was a popular pastime of nobility and the
socioeconomic elite. Emperor Frederick II permitted some lower kings to keep a number of
falcons as royal property “to prevent them from becoming ‘idle’” (Fenech 1997, 11). In what
will later be explained as a recurring theme in Maltese culture, this command over birds
propagated human patterns of social superiority and stratification; in deference to nobility,
the Knights of St John were required to pay a yearly nominal tribute of a falcon or hawk to
kings across the Mediterranean. Unlike with falconry, it is difficult to ascertain when exactly
bird shooting was introduced into Malta. However, edicts issued in the late 1500s in the form
of Bandi and decreed by the Grandmaster describe regulations which made it compulsory
for shooters to obtain a license from the Grand Falconer. This need for regulation suggests
bird shooting was at least somewhat popular in the 1500s, but the exact extent of this
popularity remains elusive.
As firearms became more readily available in the 1800s, bird shooting became more
popular – so much so that early twentieth century researchers wrote of “great slaughter
wrought by sportsmen both licensed and unlicensed” (Fenech 1997, 12). While this affinity
for indiscriminate slaughter can still be found in Maltese hunters today, most hunters in the
19th century did not have the means to hunt for sport as birds were “eaten and not stuffed”
(Fenech 1997, 13). Bird shooting was valued less as a recreational past time and more as a

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source of income through Malta’s commercial game market. Turtledoves, scops owls, and
nightjars were shot and trapped to be sold alongside rabbit and other game. Even protected
birds such as warblers, nightingales, starlings, the golden orioles referenced in Franzen’s
article “Emptying the Skies” were illegally trapped and sold on the market. Nonetheless,
there did exist a minority of hunters who could afford to shoot more for sport than for meat;
the Malta Gun Club dates back to 1827 and hosted shooting competitions using both life and
clay pigeons as well as turtle doves. General Sir Frederick Ponsonby, for instance, governed
Malta from 1827 to 1836 and invited distinguished guests and Government officials to his
private shooting resort at Marfa. Turtle doves and quail were the main game birds shot in
spring, while dottorel, thrushes, woodcocks, snipe, and stone curlews were shot in the colder
months from October to April (Fenech 1997, 14). Similar to medieval falconry, this exclusive
practice of bird shooting as a recreational activity for the elite perpetuated socioeconomic
demarcations by distinguishing the frivolous lifestyle of the few from the subsistence
lifestyle of the many. The adoption of bird shooting by the socioeconomic elite in the 1800s
no doubt contributed to the implicit codification of bird shooting as a symbol of social
superiority in the 1900s. Trends in hunter demography will shed light on how these symbols
have developed and been re-appropriated over time.
The 1970s ushered Malta into an age of economic and technological development that
drastically boosted the country’s bird hunter population; demography analyses show a
direct correlation between standard of living and the popularity of bird hunting.
Comparisons of shooting licenses and gross domestic product (GDP) from 1954 to 1994
illustrate an almost “identical” growth rate. Higher salaries “brought guns and cartridges
within everybody’s reach” (Fenech 1997, 173), while 40-hour weeks and more holidays gave

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people more free time to invest in recreation. Cars made it easier for hunters to navigate
terrain and access areas difficult to reach on foot, while innovations in firearm technology
produced guns that were more durable and easier to maintain. The proliferation of bird
hunting into mainstream recreation is apparent in Malta’s surge in hunting licenses in the
late 1900s: where 0.9% of the population held hunting licenses in 1902, 2.0% held licenses
in 1961, and 3.6% by 1979 (Fenech 1997, 179). The introduction of bird hunting to wider
strata of the Maltese population also furthered aspirations to social superiority. Status
differentials were maintained through the creation of exclusive spaces called Riservatos –
areas owned or rented by shooters in which only tenants and their guests are permitted to
shoot. While improved standards of living “enabled the average income shooter to rent small
tracts of riservatos”, social superiority was preserved by distinguishing riservatos by their
location, size, and type (Fenech 1997, 119) such that only the most affluent could afford to
own or be invited to the most exclusive riservatos. Even when accessible to more Maltese
people than ever before, bird hunting still furthers agendas of socioeconomic stratification.
Where historical scrutiny dispels obscurity in pursuit of truth, socio-cultural analysis
engenders nuance; the perils of ‘received wisdom’ in ecological intervention are easier
avoided if one critically engages with diverse local perspectives (Leach and Mearns 1996).
Though popular public opinion is “strongly anti-hunting” (Franzen 2010), 3% of the
population vehemently defend their ‘right’ to hunt. While the claim that bird shooting is
integral to Maltese tradition is dubious at best, it is indeed true that migratory birds have
long attracted Maltese attention. Birds are depicted in ancient Maltese art such as in the rock
carvings at pre-historic tal-Misqa cisterns. The first documented bird migration reference
dates to 1647 in Gianfrancesco Abela’s appraisal of peregrine falcons, merlin, sparrow hawks

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and other migratory birds (Fenech 1997, 116). Local maltese farmers are believed to have
named certain parts of the Maltese Islands after birds; Ghux il-Hida, for instance, owes part
of its name to the Maltese word Ghoxx which is of Arabic origin and means nest – the
correlation here is that red kites are believed to have once bred there. Natalino Fenech
observes “cliffs and headlands which are suitable breeding habitat for peregrine falcons
today bear the bird’s name” (Fenech 1997, 118). Fascinatingly, there are even families
nicknamed after particular birds such as tal-pespus (the pupits) and tal-bufala (the
warblers). These references to birds in old language reveal a longstanding relationship
between the Maltese and their migratory co-habitants of the islands.
Unlike references to birds in old Maltese language, the vocabulary modern-day
shooters use when speaking among themselves is replete with unsettlingly violent
depictions of conquest, misogyny, and vulgarity. In defending their pastime to non-hunters,
Maltese shooters emphasize skill, fair play, and orderly conduct in a rhetoric that glorifies
the distinguished sportsman and “his honest affection for and admiration of the beauty of
nature” (Fenech 1997, 123). Hunters refrain from using violent verbs such as ‘kill’, instead
they use the verb taqbad which means ‘to catch’. Such rhetoric deliberately downplays
violence towards animals and instead shifts attention to the skill with which a hunter
performs their sport. This pernicious façade is immediately betrayed by the ways in which
hunters speak when in ‘hunters-only’ contexts. Here, shooters exhibit “uninhibited delight in
the capture and killing of birds”, using “sadistic vocabulary” (Fenech 1997, 123) and violent
imagery that would evoke immediate revulsion in most. One particular hunter from San
Gwann goes by hexa kacca – the literal translation of which is that he “fucks up game”
(Fenech 1997, 119). Shooters brag between themselves of bouts in which birds are not so

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innocently caught, but “blasted out of the sky”, “made mincemeat of”, “smoked”, “smashed”,
and “flushed”. Crude statements abound: Sparajt ghal gamieama, mank basset (‘I shot a turtle
dove and it didn’t even have time to fart’), intiftu fi-arja (‘I made its feather fly off in the air’),
baqqantu (‘I pick-axed it’). Of particular recent popularity are the terms hraqt (‘I burnt’) and
sparajt (‘I shot’) (Fenech 1997, 124). Beyond crude depictions of violence and gore, shooters
also employ sexualized metaphors when speaking to one another. Worth acknowledging is
that all species of birds considered game by the Maltese – with the exception of thrushes –
are assigned feminine names: skylarks are alwetta, golden plovers are pluveria, and
turtledoves gamiema. That birds of prey are typically assigned masculine names on the other
hand, can be attributed to “their association with falconry and manliness” (Fenech 1997,
124). This direction of vulgarity towards female bird bodies in shooters’ language reveals a
modern Maltese hunter culture of violent boastfulness with unsettling misogynistic
undertones.
That shooters use violent conquest-oriented language only among themselves
insinuates there exist relational dynamics within the hunting community that reward vulgar
machismo. This machismo is reflected in the image younger generations of shooters strive
to create for themselves through the clothes they wear and the gear they use. Where older
shooters before the 1970s wore plain khaki clothes and twin barreled shotguns, modern
shooters sport “camouflaged jackets” (Fenech 1997, 125) and double cartridge belts. The
aforementioned twin barreled shotgun has been replaced with a five-shot repeater shotgun
which “is aesthetically more connected to the military than to the traditional game shooting
gun” (Mallia 1989). The late Albert Gauci, then secretary of the Shooters and Trappers
Association, described this younger macho hunter as a man who “shoots with a fearlessly

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straight aim at eagles, sparrows and swallows without the least fear of the possibility of
being attacked in turn” all while sporting “peaked cap, gaudy shirt and commando trousers,
ammunition belt or belts, heavy boots, bad and all the rest” (Gauci 1974). Further
perpetuating this aesthetic, manufacturers of guns and shooting paraphernalia have
refashion their products to better embody macho hunter aspirations. In the past, cartridges
were plain without any motifs other than the brand name and name of gun powder with
which they were loaded. When game hunting became more popularized, “birds which were
considered as game, such as … duck or partridges, started appearing on cartridge cases”
(Fenech 1997, 127). Emphasis on thrill and intensity is evident in the choice of words on
packaging; cartridges now read ‘high velocity’, ‘long range’, ‘super calibre’, ‘super chasse’,
‘victory’, ‘saga’, ‘turbo’, or ‘baby magnum’ (Fenech 1997, 127). Not only do modern Maltese
hunters use bird shooting to fulfill fantasies of conquest and machismo, they also boast and
outfit themselves in aesthetic excesses as a form of mutual affirmation within their
community. Birds are merely objects with which hunters can assert their imagined
militaristic powers; they are the unsuspecting victims of intangible visions made real.
Examining ecological and international impacts of Maltese bird
shooting
Lying along the European-African migration flyway, the Maltese Islands are an
important checkpoint for birds flying between African resting grounds and European
breeding grounds. Specifically, the islands “represent a vital stop-over and refueling site for
the birds to replenish fat stores for onwards migration … and are also an important overnight
roost site for larger migrating birds” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016, 597). Bird migration

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is from south to north in late winter and early spring; the days are longer, the temperature
is more moderate, and food is in ready supply. These make appropriate breeding grounds
for birds to feed their young, especially as there are relatively few predatory animals to
contend with in these cold, higher latitude climates. Return migration sees birds fly south to
warmer countries in late summer and early autumn. Migration flyways occur in areas void
of ecological barriers such as “mountain ranges, oceans or large spans of sea, lakes and
deserts”, instead these areas feature attractive “river systems, marshes and coastal
stretches” (Fenech 1997, 283).
Maltese bird hunters are often criticized for shooting indiscriminately “regardless of
the season or the bird’s protection status” (Franzen 2010). In particular, seabirds, herons,
finches, hirundine, and birds of prey are hunted extensively; hunters shoot “bee-eaters,
hoopoes, golden orioles, shearwaters, storks, … endangered raptors, such as lesser spotted
eagles and pallid harriers” (Franzen 2010). Interviews with older-generation hunters and
journalists alike corroborate an observed decline in bird populations over the past three
decades. While investigating illegal bird hunting in Malta, Jonathan Franzen recalls one
incident in which he spotted a chaffinch – one of Europe’s most common birds whose
numbers have drastically declined in Malta. On seeing the female bird, Franzen’s Maltese
colleague could barely contain his surprise and excitement: “It was like somebody in North
America being amazed to see a robin” (Franzen 2010). The situation is particularly dire for
“rare species or those with small breeding populations”, and could pose a tangible threat to
the long-term persistence of European and global populations alike “such as the pallied
harrier … and saker falcon” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016, 597). Though Jonathan Franzen
claims that every spring “as many as a billion [birds] are killed deliberately”, research

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conducted by BirdLife Partners in the Mediterranean shows “10 million birds are … killed
and taken in the Mediterranean region each year” (Bossche 2015) while research cited in
local petitions suggests that of these killings, “3 million birds are shot or trapped on Malta
while migrating between Africa and Europe in the spring and autumn” (Camilleri n.d.). Such
excessive shooting can have serious impact on migratory bird populations. Turtle dove and
quail are the two most predominantly shot game species, especially in the spring season.
Fenech estimates the annual (recorded) bag of turtle doves in Malta is “between 160,000 (or
ten birds per hunter in poor years) to 480,000 turtle doves (or 30 birds per hunter in good
years)” (Fenech 1992). Analysis of turtle doves seen relative turtle doves shot and trapped
reveals that at least 28.1% of turtle doves seen were shot in 1988 – a fairly significant portion
of the observed bird population (Fenech 1997, 298). Tucker and Heath observed a sharp
decline in the Eastern population of turtle doves between 1970 and 1990 (Tucker and Heath
1994) and attributed some of this to intense shooting of turtle doves during their spring
migration. Several Maltese bird species, including western jackdaw, barn owl, and peregrine
falcon, have been extirpated by a combination of factors including excessive hunting – with
little success in reestablishing their populations despite the availability of breeding habitat
and prey.
While I have so far limited my scrutiny to licensed Maltese hunters, illegal bird
shooting and trapping is another widespread enormity with significant impact not only on
Malta’s breeding birds, but also international bird populations from Finland, Tunisia,
Sweden, Germany and Italy. In a report filed at the convention on the conservation of
European wildlife and natural habitats, Birdlife Malta drew attention to the need for national
law authorities to enforce hunting regulations after recording “thousands of incidents of

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illegal hunting and trapping annually” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016) (Malta and Union
2013). In 2011, a large flock of 200 White Storks fell prey to targeted shooting distributed
across different locations on the island – at least 6 storks were seen to be shot down while
another 4 were visibly injured. Vets reported that several more injured storks suffered from
gunshot injuries including open fracture to wing, and fractured legs. (B. Malta 2011).
Investigating this international dimension of criminal hunting, André F. Raine et al analyzed
ring recovery databases of the Valletta Bird Ringing Scheme from the present back to the
1920s. Their research analyzed 435 records of 84 species from 36 countries – majority of
which (91.7%) were species listed as “protected and non-huntable throughout the European
Union, with a significant proportion listed as European Species of Conservation Concern”
(Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016, 597). Disconcerting as this may be, the authors find even
greater reason for worry in the underrepresentation of the number of birds shot and
probably the number of countries of origin, given “a disparity in the level of ringing activity
in various countries; the fact that only recoveries reported to BirdLife Malta are recorded,
and not those kept by hunters in private illegal collections; the decreasing likelihood of
hunters reporting ring recoveries of protected species because of increased scrutiny of the
Maltese hunting community; … and hunters regularly hide the carcasses of protected birds
they have shot” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016, 599). Perhaps these inaccuracies are what
lead Franzen to make seemingly wild guesses regarding the effect of hunting on bird
populations. Not only are bird populations from the Mediterranean and beyond at risk; the
criminal anonymity of illegal hunting occludes the exact severity of its impact.

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Towards a new assemblage
Since Malta’s economic boom in the 1970s, Maltese bird hunters have become so
fixated on machismo, conquest, and firepower, that their militaristic convictions have
obscured the animality of birds as prey. No longer is bird hunting fueled by the desire to
overcome animal instinct with human cunning; instead the bird as an individual has been
forgotten while patience and skill have been all but removed from hunting contexts. Evident
in their dismissively vulgar language and indiscriminate slaughter of masses of birds,
modern-day shooters merely see birds as flying objects through which they can fulfill their
fantasies of unbridled destruction. Easy as it may be to assume there must exist some cultural
peculiarities that make Maltese people so predisposed to such excessive cruelty, studies of
public opinion reveal that most Maltese people are “strongly anti-hunting” (Franzen 2010).
No doubt in response to the excesses of their countrymen, twentieth century authors “lament
about the way the birds are treated and often compare hunters and trappers to other animals
which are not considered friendly at best and a nuisance at worst” (Fenech 1997, 136). One
writer poetically juxtaposed the creation of birds by God and the creation of cages by
trappers to portray caged finches as singing “not songs of joy and love, but cries of those who
have lost hope” (Fenech 1997, 137). In two short stories, former Maltese president Paul
Xuereb spoke against robin trapping and “an irresponsible hunter who shoots anything that
flies” (Fenech 1997, 138). Scathing as these Maltese writers’ responses to hunting may be,
their attempts to reintroduce ‘bird voices’ into hunting contexts frame bird shooting as a
nationally divisive topic – and not just an ecological eyesore frowned upon by the
international community. This provides an appropriate premise for reconstruction of bird
shooting in Malta as an assemblage of recreation, tradition, and conservation.

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When Maltese hunters began shooting birds for commercial profit as stuffed trophies
and game meat, resulting underregulated processes of commodification preceded
recreational excess and even illegal poaching. While wildlife advocates like BirdLife Malta
and the European Commission on hunting strive towards policy changes to regulate hunting
within sustainable limits, Malta’s hunting laws are unnecessarily lenient and weakly
enforced. A bipartisan state, Malta’s political system fuels dynamics of patronage; given that
national elections can be decided by the small margin of a few thousand votes, neither the
Labour Party nor the Nationalists Party “can afford to alienate their hunting constituents”
(Franzen 2010) so both parties “actively seek the votes of the hunting lobby” (Raine, Gauci
and Barbara 2016, 602). So as not to upset hunting lobbies like the Federation for Hunting &
Conservation (FKNK) when Malta joined the EU for instance, the Maltese Prime Minister
“wrote a personal letter to all hunters on the island, assuring them that joining the EU would
not affect their hunting and trapping practices” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016, 602). The
pressure on Members of Parliament to retain the support of their electoral districts grants
hunters political leverage to push back against laws that inhibit their sport. New concessions
are often granted to hunters while enforcement of hunting laws is lax and understaffed.
Unfortunately, this weakened enforcement of hunting laws “culminated in widespread illegal
hunting activities (which included the shooting of a white stork ringed in Italy, and multiple
birds of prey)” (Raine, Gauci and Barbara 2016, 602). The international implications of illegal
hunting as well as Malta’s membership in the EU hold the country to some international
accountability; the Maltese government must work alongside the European Commission to
“ensure that the laws of the Birds Directive are enforced” through “Increased fines, custodial

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sentences for repeat offenders, shorter hunting seasons and effective enforcement” (Raine,
Gauci and Barbara 2016, 603).
In Beyond Fair Chase, Jim Posewitz describes an ethical hunter as someone “who
knows and respects the animals hunted, follows the law, and behaves in a way that will
satisfy what society expects of him or her as a hunter” (Posewitz 1994, 110). While the last
two qualities have already been addressed, the task remains to ascertain what exactly it
means to ‘respect’ hunted animals. Posewitz turns to fair chase as a key principle of the
ethical hunt; this guiding principle “is a balance that allows hunters to occasionally succeed
while animals generally avoid being taken” (Posewitz 1994, 57). While Posewitz writes with
commendable intent, his delivery of instructive best-practices falls short in terms of
contextual versatility: statements like “The ethical hunter never chases or harasses wildlife
with a machine” are too restrictive to be practical, while those more like “For every hunter it
is a good practice to let an animal that could be killed pass without harm every now and then”
are too vague to include in an ethical reconstruction of Maltese bird shooting. However,
Posewitz does make a meaningful observation when he claims “Technological advancement,
the human population explosion, and the loss of wild lands required a new balancing
between the hunter and the hunted” (Posewitz 1994, 58). This is corroborated by
observations of Spanish nobleman and social philosopher José Ortega Gasset: “[A]s the
weapon became more and more effective, man imposed more and more limitations on
himself as the animal’s rival in order to leave it free to practice its wily defenses, in order to
avoid making the prey and the hunter excessively unequal, as if passing beyond a certain in
that relationship might annihilate the essential character of the hunt, transforming it into
pure killing and destruction” (Dizard 1994, 101). This is especially relevant to Maltese

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hunters who seem to have disregarded this need for balance in their indiscriminate slaughter
of masses of birds. Jan E. Dizard frames the need for balance in terms of hunter satisfaction
and highlights “pleasure was enhanced not by the number of animals killed but by the self-
imposed rules of fair play that produced an aesthetic and stylized encounter with wild
animals” (Dizard 1994, 96). A theoretical reconstruction of Maltese bird shooting will
require that hunters refamiliarize themselves with an awareness of birds as living prey to be
hunted with fair chase. Current prevailing motifs of violence, conquest, and excess will need
to be replaced with skill, patience, and restraint.
Conclusion
Unraveling the problematic nature of bird shooting in Malta has required a
multifaceted analysis of historical, socioeconomic, and cultures contexts: having temporally
situated the enormities of Maltese bird shooting as recent phenomena, I then attributed its
excesses to socioeconomic trends of prosperity and overindulgence as well as cultural motifs
of machismo and conquest. The relationship between the origins of bird hunting in Malta
and its popularization in the late 1900s has also contributed to its modern peculiarities. The
adoption of bird hunting by the elite in the 1800s still informs more mainstream recreational
aspirations since bird hunting became accessible to wider strata of Maltese people in the
1900s. For instance, the exclusivity of selective Riservatos engenders divisions of social
superiority within all members of the hunting community and perpetuates patterns of social
exclusion and stratification. Militaristic fantasies play out in hunters’ aesthetic fixations on
camouflaged clothes, heavy duty gear, and big guns. All of these developments have sowed
seeds of anthropocentric disregard for wildlife and obscured the animality of birds – the bird

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in bird hunting is now all but forgotten, instead shooters blast at commodified flying objects.
Dire as the situation seems, there is hope in the efforts of national and international wildlife
advocates like BirdLife Malta to strive towards sustainable hunting practices. Evident in the
heated criticism of bird shooting across local media and literature, there exists a plurality of
Maltese perspectives on this crisis. The integration of these diverse perspectives into
advocacy efforts could steer ecological intervention away from ‘received wisdom’
conservation while still criticizing the enormities of modern bird shooting. These efforts will
need to be supplemented by government intervention through enforcement of strict hunting
policies that inhibit illegal poaching and excessive hunting. Ultimately, Maltese hunters will
need to imbibe ethical hunting as an attitude of respect and circumspection for birds.

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