Bertrand Deléon : « irrégularités, tricheries et cruauté » de l’abattage des Ibis sacrés en France

Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) is a species coming from tropical Africa and the Middle-East (south of Iraq).
From escaped birds from the ornithological park of Branféré (Morbihan) about thirty years ago, a feral population is now established on the western coasts of France, notably in the Morbihan and in the Loire-atlantique departements.
Today, there are around 5,000 birds, nesting sometimes in colonies with others species (Spoonbills, Egrets, …), for example in the Grand-Lieu lake (South of Nantes).
If it is omnivorous and feeds especially on rubbish, it can also eat chickens and eggs from fragile species such as terns: some naturalists have therefore asked for the eradication of the species in France. Several campaigns, managed by the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (National office for the hunting of wild animals), have been launched in 2008 in Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique departements to reduce drastically the number of birds
Four years later, we talk with Bertrand Déléon (Collectif pour la protection de l’Ibis sacré de Bretagne association) about these campaigns which, according to him, are full of « cruelty, irregularities and cheating ».