Flu fears force ban on bird hunting in Sagada

By Dexter A. See

SAGADA, Mountain Province — Local officials in this mountain resort town reiterated the ban on ikik or bird hunting to avoid catching foreign birds that might be carriers of the dreaded bird flu virus that could seriously affect health of people who catch and eat the birds coming from cold parts of China and other parts of the world.

The strict ban on catching of birds came in the wake of reports of a case of bird flu in Hong Kong, which is the path of the foreign birds in coming to the country to escape extreme cold in their places of origin.

Health authorities said the bird flu or avian influenza virus does not only infect birds or the fowl industry but could also infect humans causing fatal illnesses and death.

Municipal officials said measures are in place to prevent the possible entry of the bird flu virus by infected migratory birds coming to Sagada.

Records show there is an existing ordinance prohibiting all forms of bird hunting particularly ikik in the municipality.

They added barangay officials and some women groups in south central Sagada are helping each other in preventing insistent bird hunters in their ikik activities in nearby Mount Ampakao.

In Mountain Province, Mt. Ampakao in Sagada and some mountains in Barlig and Bauko have been identified by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as passage ways or stopover sites of migratory birds that get out from their countries of origin to escape the severe winter and scarcity of food.

Local residents however observed there are few bird hunters these days as people could easily buy their fowl supplies in the public market.

According to them, those who insist on ikik are doing it for fun.
Ikik is a bird hunting practice of bird hunters usually done in the cold months of the year during the exodus of migratory birds from other countries.

To trap the birds, the hunters put on their lanterns or build a fire in the evening on a mountain ridge.

Birds are attracted to the light. When the birds draw near the light, a net is hurled catching the birds.

Meanwhile, DENR and other concerned offices are on tight watch over pet and cage birds being transported at all entry points such as airports and seaports to check if they are bird flu free and also conduct surveillance of migratory bird sites to prevent the possible transmission of bird flu into the country.

During the early 1980s, local residents were able to catch various varieties of birds which are not found in the country.

Some of the caught birds are even butchered and eaten by the bird hunters instead of being taken cared of.

Foreign species of birds are attracted to pass through the town because of the warmer weather condition compared to the prevailing winter condition in their respective places of origin.