Marine & Coastal Community network, SA news service
SEABIRDS
ABC Online
Wed, 25 Oct 2000 11:20 CST
South Australia
MUTTON BIRD DEATHS PUT AT 1 MILLION
A wildlife organisation says a million mutton birds have died around the
Australian coast in recent weeks. Currumbin Sanctuary on
the Gold Coast says the problem is much more serious than authorities
originally thought. Sanctuary vet Vere Nicholson says post
mortem results which found oil in some birds' stomachs are probably
significant. "We were thinking that we had several thousand
birds dying a little while ago, but evidently the latest estimate, there are a
million dead along the New South Wales Coast, and
it's now spreading from Fraser Island I think is the furthest north and they're
starting to find them in Victoria now," he said.
Thousands of dead and dying mutton birds have also been washed ashore near
Victor Harbor, south of Adelaide. The National Parks and
Wildlife service says the birds died from exhaustion after they were blown off
course on their way to Tasmania.
© 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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