hollywoodtone.blogspot.com What's killing the Bald Eagles of Utah?
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com What's killing the Bald Eagles of Utah?
Wildlife officials are scrambling to find out what has killed 20 Bald Eagles and sickened many others over the past few weeks in Utah.
Hikers, farmers, hunters and others have been coming across the sick birds over a broad area in the northern and central parts of the state. They have been found limp, seriously weakened, often suffering from paralysis and seizures. Most die within 48 hours. Thus far, lab tests have ruled out hunting injuries, poisoning and West Nile Virus. Many of the sick birds have been brought to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden, Utah, where handlers tried to save the sickened birds. “It’s just hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures in a way it can’t control – when you can see it’s in pain but you don’t know what’s causing it,“ said Buz Marthaler, a co-founder of the center, in an article in the Los Angeles Times. “And when you lose one, it just grabs your heart.” The area around the Great Salt Lake is a major stopover for migrating Bald Eagles heading south. It is also a stopover for eared grebes, a small water fowl. This year, there was a major die-off of the grebes, possibly from avian cholera, though wildlife officials are equally mystified by this die-off. Since Bald Eagles are scavengers, some wildlife officials speculate that the sickened eagles may have fed on the diseased grebes. Thus far, the outbreak seems to be limited to the Utah area. Leslie McFarlane of the state's Wildlife Disease Program told the Standard-Examiner that she had contacted wildlife officlas in surrounding states and Canada to find out if they had any similar experience, and so far nothing unusal had been reported. “No one is experiencing what we are experiencing right now,McFarlane said.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com What's killing the Bald Eagles of Utah?