A wildlife expert is cautioning people against endangering or killing Jamaica’s native birds just for social media clout.

This is in light of several disturbing videos seen by the Jamaica Observer which have been circulating on social media recently. One video showed a man with several dead, skinned, native grey king birds on a string, saying he was about to cook and eat them. There is another with a man grabbing from a tree, another native bird — the Northern Potoo. He held it by its wing as it squeaked and flapped around in distress. Yet another video shows men hunting birds and shooting them with slingshots.

These last two videos seen on TikTok are snippets of a longer 24-minute video on a YouTube channel with almost 300 likes and more than 4,000 views.

The video begins with men all smiles saying they are about to “hunt few birds”, and that they were planning to kill 20 to 25 birds, seemingly in competition with another YouTuber whom they said killed 15 previously.

“Nothing not safe right now you know guys — anything we see, dead!” one of the men said with glee before heading into a forested area, then venturing into a residential area, even going onto people’s properties to retrieve the birds.

Terrestrial biologist and president of wildlife advocacy group Birdlife Jamaica, Damion Whyte told the Jamaica Observer that viewing these types of videos are very perturbing for him as a wildlife advocate.

He explained that all native birds are protected under the Wild Life Protection Act, including all native parrots, parakeets, owls, small birds of every kind, seabirds, shorebirds, and migratory birds. He stressed that under the Act people are not allowed to kill or injure native birds.

“Under the Wild Life Protection Act it is an offence to kill, trap these animals, and even disturb them. However, a number of people nowadays have been putting out these videos on social media to get a ‘hype’ or to get more followers of them doing that illegal act,” he said.

He said the video of the man grabbing the Northern Potoo was particularly disturbing, noting that the way he was handling the bird could hurt the wing — and if the wing is damaged the bird has to be euthanised.

“So he thinks he’s doing a cool thing because he’s trying to get more social media likes. However, going back to the Wild Life Act, he is harassing, he could injure, he could kill. So when you see some of the experts moving these animals, they are trained to properly handle them. If you hold a bird like that by the wing, chances are you can damage it. And if it get’s broken, that’s it — it’s a dead bird,” he said.

Further, Whyte said reading the comments under these videos is even more unsettling as it appears there are viewers who actually enjoy watching these videos, with people saying they plan to come in from overseas to take part in the activity. There are others, he said, who seem eager to learn how to use gum to trap the birds, how to cast nets and cut down trees to get to the baby birds — as demonstrated in some of these videos.

“We are concerned that there’s an increased number of people thinking that it is okay to go out and indiscriminately shoot birds…These videos are very concerning because some of these species that they are shooting, like the Jamaican woodpecker, it’s endemic, meaning it’s only found in Jamaica. You’re not allowed to shoot that,” he said. “There are some people, I don’t know if it’s ignorance or what, who feel that they can go out and do this illegal bird-shooting… The law states that if you don’t have a permit you can’t go out and shoot any bird; and with a permit you’re only permitted to shoot certain birds.”

Whyte said it is also clear that the slingshot-wielding men in the video do not have permits to shoot these birds as the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) does not issue bird-shooting permits for persons using slingshots. He said even if they were shooting the game birds allowed within the season, on the specific days, in the designated areas, and at the stipulated times, the activity is still illegal with the use of a slingshot.

He said while it might be argued that the six-weekend-long bird-shooting season is ongoing so there should not be much concern about a few men shooting a few birds, he stressed that the bottom line is that any activity outside of the stipulations of the season is illegal. He further stressed that the illegal bird-hunters, in competition, have been killing much more than a few birds.

The annual bird-shooting season opened on August 19 and will end on September 24. According to information from NEPA, among the requirements for hunting under the Wild Life Protection Act is a mandate to confine such activities to areas designated for shooting, and to refrain from hunting within game-bird reserves.

It said hunters are also forbidden to shoot within 40 yards of residential dwellings, and to adhere to the time restrictions granted for shooting. The season’s hunting sessions are from sunrise to 9:00 am and 2:30 pm to sunset on Saturdays, and from sunrise to 9:00 am on Sundays. It is also imperative that hunters adhere to the stipulated bag limit for the number of birds that they can shoot during each session.

NEPA also reminded that hunters also have to bear in mind that they can only shoot the following game birds: Zenaida Dove/pea dove; white-winged dove; white-crowned pigeon/baldpate; and mourning dove/long-tailed pea dove.

He also had some wise words of advice to individuals carrying out these illegal acts: “My advice to the guys who are looking to start up these nature social media pages to showcase, they can highlight positive aspects. They can go showcase looking at the birds, showcase their life in the forest — they can showcase all different sorts of things instead of shooting or [mis]handling these animals. There are so many other things you can do without harming the birds.”

He suggested that the authorities need to put in place educational programmes to make persons more aware of the illegal activity, including issuing informational pamphlets and posting the relevant information on social media.

Since the bird-shooting season began NEPA has already cited several hunters for not adhering to the stipulations under the law, including shooting in a game reserve, and shooting outside the prescribed time for hunting during the game bird-shooting season.

NEPA also issued a summons for hunting without a licence, and gave warnings for shooting near a residential area. According to the Wild Life Protection Act, persons found guilty of breaching the game bird-shooting law may incur a maximum fine of $100,000 or face imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months.

NEPA says information on the location of game reserves and other rules governing the staging of the annual bird-shooting season can be found in the hunter’s handbook, which is usually given to hunters when they purchase their licence at NEPA’s head office.