odds ’n’ ends

DHEKELIA, Cyprus:

The top law enforcement official for Britain’s two military bases on Cyprus said Monday that a yearlong crackdown on illegal bird trapping inside the bases has resulted in a record number of arrests and prosecutions.

Police Chief Constable Chris Eyre pushed back against criticism from conservationists that base authorities haven’t done enough to keep the island’s birds from falling prey to unauthorized trappers.

Eyre said some 78 court cases have been initiated and more than 1,000 nets have been seized in the past year by the team of a dozen officers who patrol a firing range that’s notorious for trapping because it lies along an established migratory bird route.

More than 3,000 birds caught in the nets were also released, he said

Jonathan Hall, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, agreed that the bases have done well. But to counter “industrial scale” trapping, authorities must also remove acacia trees that provide perfect cover for trappers’ nets.

The trapping of small migratory birds — known locally as “ambelopoulia” — feeds a lucrative underground trade among some restaurants that serve them as a delicacy. Conservationists say the trade is the worth millions. Eyre said a plate of a dozen pickled or grilled birds can fetch 60 euros ($64.)

Some Cypriots argue that trapping has been part of island culture for centuries and that the volume of birds caught does not harm migratory patterns. (AP)

RENO, Nev:

Wild horse advocates in Nevada scored a victory Monday in an ongoing legal battle with rural interests they say want to round up federally protected mustangs across the West and sell them for slaughter.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied an appeal by the Nevada Association of Counties and Nevada Farm Bureau Federation representing ranchers and others who argue overpopulated herds are damaging the range and robbing livestock of forage.

The decision upholds an earlier ruling by a federal judge in Reno who dismissed their lawsuit in 2015 seeking to force the US Bureau of Land Management to expedite widespread roundups across Nevada.

The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld a similar decision in Wyoming in October.

In both cases, the American Wild Horse Campaign and others argued the courts have no authority to order the agency to gather horses in violation of the US Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. (AP)