A 55-year-old man arrested on Friday evening during a police operation targeting illegal hunting in Cyprus was on Saturday remanded for four days by the Nicosia district court on Saturday.

The arrest, by Morphou police, followed coordinated searches by the police and the game and fauna service in several homes, premises and vehicles across the Morphou and Limassol districts.

During the searches, officers also inspected the 55-year-old’s home in a Nicosia village, where they found prohibited types of hunting rifles, including one modified gun and one without identification markings, a mouflon skull, illegal animal traps, and a number of dead wild birds.

The operation was part of a wider campaign to prevent and combat poaching offences.

During the searches, officers discovered a large amount of wildlife and related evidence.

The game and fauna service reported that in total two mouflon skulls, three hares, seven partridges, five francolins, and more than 1,000 dead wild birds were found.

In addition, freshly killed and frozen wild game and a live hare were seized from three other homes.

Authorities also located about 29kg of frozen meat, limesticks, and various other items believed to be linked to poaching including 47 metal traps used to catch wild birds, a bird-trapping net, and three electronic devices capable of emitting bird calls.

All the items were taken in as evidence.

Police and the game and fauna service are continuing their joint investigation into the case.