GRETA SANTAGATA

I can finally reveal the secret I've been keeping with me for the past week: Chris Packham and his crew (independently of any broadcasters) have been with us for the past 4 days, filming CABS, the work we've done and the incredible and little known reality that is illegal bird trapping in Cyprus. I had to keep this a secret because if the word accidentally came out and got the British base, the poachers would have most likely suspended their trapping activity for fear of attr

Day 3 of the anti-poaching camp in Cyprus. I walked for 8 miles in the almost palpable blackness of the night in the middle of the British Eastern Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia (ESBA), carrying two rescued owls in my bag. Their tiny claws scratching against my back, begging me to set them free. These were only two of the 15000 birds that get killed every night in Cyprus and that we had to walk past, unable to set them all free, while trying to dodge the trappers that were s

Day 1 of the anti poaching camp in Cyprus. I arrived at midnight at Larnaca airport and was welcomed by a British ex army guy who looked a bit like Bruce Willis and asked me if I paid for good medical insurance because apparently he got shot at the other day and was chased by poachers in pick-up trucks. He also nonchalantly took his phone out of his pocket and showed me pictures of dead hoopoes - which finally got me a little worried. It looks like I have arrived in a bird wa