Shot Booted Eagle becomes eighth Italian poaching case in a month
Eight pellets were found in the migrant raptor after it was rescued in Lazio, while seven other protected birds have recently reached Italian centres with gunshot injuries.
A Booted Eagle has died after being shot in Italy, becoming the eighth documented case in a month of a protected bird reaching a rescue centre with gunshot injuries after the hunting season opened.
The migrant raptor was found badly injured in the Lazio region and taken to LIPU's wildlife rescue centre in Rome. Examination found an open displaced fracture of the radius and ulna in its left wing and eight pellets lodged around its body. The injuries proved fatal.
LIPU published its original account on 21 October. BirdLife International updated the wider picture on 3 November, reporting seven other protected birds recently found shot across Italy: a Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Eurasian Hobby, Audouin's Gull, Grey Heron and two Eurasian Buzzards.
Four of those birds were still recovering when BirdLife published its account. The Peregrine, Grey Heron and one Buzzard had died, as had the Booted Eagle. The cases are documented injuries, but the public reports identify no suspect and describe no arrest or conviction.
Italy's hunting season legally reopened on 20 September. All eight birds belong to protected species rather than legal quarry, and several were moving along international migration routes when they were shot.
Giovanni Albarella, LIPU's head of anti-poaching and hunting activities, described the sequence as an enforcement emergency.
In Italy, poaching is not just a problem - it is an emergency.
Giovanni Albarella, LIPU/BirdLife Italy
The Audouin's Gull carried a French ring, indicating a likely international movement before it was injured. BirdLife noted that the species is globally listed as Vulnerable and declining, illustrating how an offence in one country can affect conservation work elsewhere.
BirdLife cited an estimate that an average 5.6 million birds are illegally killed in Italy each year, the highest national figure in the Mediterranean assessment it referenced. Such estimates cover a wide range of methods and species and should not be confused with the eight individually documented rescue cases.
LIPU said it would submit a complaint to the public prosecutor in Velletri and raise the case with national institutions and, where appropriate, the European Commission. It has also proposed a temporary suspension of hunting within management areas where specially protected species are killed, continuing until those responsible are identified.
That proposal is an advocacy position from LIPU rather than current Italian law. BirdLife also called for stronger preventive measures and enforcement, noting that countries have committed under the Rome Strategic Plan to reduce illegal killing by at least half by 2030.
The immediate evidence is limited to birds that were found and delivered for care. It cannot measure undetected shooting or establish whether the incidents are connected. It does, however, document repeated use of firearms against protected species during the opening weeks of the legal hunting season.
4 Nov 2026
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