Bosnian Birds, Italian Bullets

Every year, more than 150,000 quails, a potentially endangered migratory bird species, are killed in the Western Balkans. This accounts for around 3 percent of the total European population. Many are shot by foreign hunters, who are taking advantage of the rich biodiversity and weaker law enforcement in countries like Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.  

Italian hunters have been travelling to biodiverse rich hunting grounds on the karst fields around Livno in the south of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Illegal devices –  imitating the sound of the birds repeatedly - are used to lure quails during hunting. The tape lures enable hunters and their dogs to kill hundreds of the animals all at once.  

The areas where Bosnian hunting agencies take their Italian customers are important breeding spaces for migratory birds and hunting is diminishing the European quail population, already under severe threat of climate change and air pollution. They also say that police officers, hunting inspectors and prosecutors are not doing enough to stop the illicit killing of quails.  

“In Italy there is a long-standing tradition of bird hunting. Most species that can be hunted here [in Livno] are protected in Italy. They cannot hunt in Italy, and they have a strong desire to hunt birds, so they look for destinations where they are allowed to do so. And that is precisely one of the reasons why they come to Bosnia,” explains one environmentalist.  

In turn, the police and hunting inspectors in Bosnia, say they try to stop the devastating environmental crime, but are hampered by a lack of evidence and low punishments.  

The lack of legal redress has a devastating effect on the biodiversity not only in the Balkans, but across Europe, says an environmentalist working to counter illegal poaching of quails: “A quail that someone kills in say Serbia is the same quail someone invested millions of euros in to protect in Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Scandinavia or the Baltic states. It is a migratory bird. If some farmers in Latvia or Poland receive subsidies from citizens who are taxpayers of the European Union to keep their meadows or fields clean and beautiful where these quails nest, and they are killed in poaching in Serbia, the whole system falls apart.”

Other than busting an illegal hunting operation involving Italian hunters with the police, the team also interviewed environmentalists, and spoke with law enforcement officials trying to stop the poaching of quails. In Italy, they also investigated hunting associations offering tours to Bosnia.

Photo: Ajdin Kamber

SCREENINGS

• This short film on quail hunting was screened in Livno on 24 February and in Banja Luka on 28 February, 2025.

In Livno, citizens, the police, hunting inspectors, the prosecutor’s office and other relevant government officials came to see it — and so did  hunters and hunting associations. After the screening, a vivid discussion took place between the participants and the investigative journalists. The hunters' comments confirmed that the file reflected well the real situation on the ground. They also said that this was the first time that someone had publicly named people involved in poaching, and even offered their help if the journalists wanted to continue investigating this topic. 

• The documentary film Krivolov is to be shown in Vukovar on Saturday, 7th June, as part of the "Media in Time" festival.

Following the screening, co-authors Ajdin Kamber and Vanja Stokić will stay for a Q&A session, to discuss the making of the film and its pressing subject matter.

"Krivolov explores the unethical and illegal hunting of quail in Bosnia and Herzegovina, involving both Italian hunters and local communities."