A disease that has killed tens of thousands of birds is spreading throughout the Great Lakes region. The latest die-off occurred along a Lake Michigan shoreline. Linda Stephan reports officials now estimate that nearly 2600 birds died from that outbreak alone:
Transcript
A disease that has killed tens of thousands of birds is spreading throughout the Great Lakes region. The latest die-off occurred along a Lake Michigan shoreline. Linda Stephan reports officials now estimate that nearly 2600 birds died from that outbreak alone:
Recent tests confirm that the birds died from Type E botulism poisoning. Type E botulism is passed up the food chain from the invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
Steve Yancho is the Chief of Natural Resources for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. He says it’s a shame to see so many dead birds washed up on the beaches.
“You know the most disturbing of the bird species that we’re seeing are common loons. There’s not a lot of those in the state and we’re finding those mixed in with these others already at fairly alarming numbers.”
Yancho says the area has not seen this kind of die-off before, and officials don’t know when it might end.
It’s likely that thousands or tens of thousands of birds are dying and not being counted. That’s because wildlife officials can’t patrol all the shorelines throughout the Great Lakes.
For the Environment Report, I’m Linda Stephan.