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The hunting season opened on 17 September 2006. Some 70,000 hunters are permitted to hunt 40 different bird species until the end of the season on 31 January 2007.These include Skylark Alauda arvensis, Ruff Philomachus pugnax, Water Rail Rallus aquaticus und Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus. The annual bag of the officially huntable species is about 17 million birds, the most sought-after being the Song Thrush Turdus philomelos with 7.7 million birds shot. In addition an estimated 10 to 20 million birds are shot illegally. Conservationists had one success to their credit before the season began. Several regions had applied to have the season extended by an earlier start of 2 weeks (from 2 September). An Italian organisation secured a court injunction against a local administrative court decision to begin the season early.
The Committee Against Bird Slaughter's (CABS – www.komitee.de ) bird protection camps, with its partners LAC, CSA, WWF and LIPU begin in Lombardy on 30 September 2006.
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