The silent killing of Flamingos at the doors of Venice

Breeding of Flamingos at the Doors of Venice

2008-07-30T15:02:00.006+02:00

A new breeding colony of Flamingos of few pairs has been discovered in 2008 in the Lagoon of Venice. This is the second breeding site in NE Italy and the fourth of whole Italy (the other colonies being found in the Comacchio lagoon, Po Delta, the Apulia and Sardinia.

Here are available some pictures of the Flamingo ringing, carried out on 17th July 2008.

New blog: Ambientalismo di Razza

2008-07-13T10:27:00.003+02:00

המוות השקט של הפלמינגו

2007-12-18T15:40:00.000+01:00

לא נראה לי שהייתה כאן כוונה להעליב

צריך לזכור שבין חברי הפורום יש מבוגרים וצעירים, מומחים וחובבים, ורמת ההבנה

והשאלה היא בהתאם לכך.

כמי שמכיר את לוליגו אני ממש לא חושב שהייתה בכוונתו לייחס מוגבלות כל שהיא לאנשי

הרשות, להיפך כולנו מברכים על הטיפול המהיר

לפעמים צריך קצת להוריד את המגננות ולחשוב על הצד השני שניזון רק ממה שנכתב

כאן ולא מכיר את השטח כמוך.

ולגבי חיזוקים -

מצורפים קישורים למי שחושב שמצבנו בארץ רע, שימו לב למספרים ותופעות הלוואי

בשני הקישורים -

הראשון ציד ברווזים בדלתת הפו באיטליה - 400,000 ברווזים נודדים ניצודים מדי שנה

ומשקעי העופרת הנותרים מהציד הורגים את הפלמינגו והעופות האחרים הניצונים בבוץ.

השני - עצומה מאתר הועדה למניעת טבח ציפורים - שלחו מכתב לנציב הסביבה

באיחוד האירופי - 100 מיליון ציפורים ניצודות ב25 מדינות האיחוד מדי שנה!

השלישי - דף הבית של הועדה הנ"ל עוד פרוייקטים נגד הרג ציפורים.

שי

http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/forumpage.asp?id=1002

Spreading death: a poisoned Flamingo in the Comacchio salina, southern Po Delta, 16 december 2007

2007-12-17T19:13:00.000+01:00

This video is featuring a Flamingo suffering of lead poisoning due to ingestion of lead bullets shot in tons by duck hunters. The outbreak is spreading since the dead Flamingos were found normally in Valle Pozzatini, nothern Po Delta.

Video Rai3 TG3 8 December 2007 19:30

2007-12-17T17:42:00.000+01:00

Gold diggers enlisted by the Forest Rangers to collect lead bullets from the mud of the lagoons

2007-12-13T18:32:00.000+01:00

A group of gold diggers were enlisted by the "Forestale" (National Forest Rangers) to try to collect lead bullets from the mud sampled from the bottom of the Po Delta lagoons. They were successful and both lead and nickel-lead bullets were detected. The local goverment admitted recently a total yearly bag of 70.000 migratory ducks harvested by the hunters in the northern Po Delta. However, environmentalists were able to deny this statement because of the widespread illegality of the local hunters, so data are to be doubled: 140.000 at less.

Flamingi: Zobaczyć Wenecję i umrzeć

2007-12-13T10:04:00.000+01:00

W listopadzie 2006 w Delcie Padu (północne Włochy) znaleziono ponad 20 martwych flamingów (Phoenicopterus ruber). Po zbadaniu zawartości ich żołądków, stwierdzono w nich obecność licznych ołowianych kul wykorzystywanych przez myśliwych do polowań na ptaki wodne. Analizy chemiczne i histopatologiczne potwierdziły, że właśnie zatrucie ołowiem było przyczyną zgonu flamingów.
Pomimo apeli organizacji przyrodniczych, lokalne władze nie wydały zakazu używania ołowianych kul na terenach chronionych (delta Padu, będącej ważną ostoją dla ptaków lęgowych i wędrownych, objęta jest ochroną jako tzw. park regionalny – odpowiednik polskiego parku krajobrazowego). Rok później ponownie znaleziono tu ponad 20 martwych flamingów.

Flamingi zaczęły pojawiać się w delcie Padu stosunkowo niedawno – pierwsze regularne obserwacje pochodzą z lat 90. XX w., a dopiero na początku obecnego stulecia zaczęły przystępować tu do lęgów. Żerują w płytkich lagunach (np. w okolicach Wenecji), gdzie szukają pożywienia filtrując wodę. Podobnie jak kaczki czy łabędzie, flamingi połykają drobne kamienie, dzięki którym pokarm w żołądku może być rozcierany. Ptaki nie są w stanie odróżnić kamyków od ołowianych kul, przez co połykają także je, a efekty są tragiczne.

Antoni Marczewski

http://www.biolog.pl/article5222.html

Protesting the poisoning, collecting big lead bullets

2007-12-12T22:37:00.000+01:00

Lead pollution: "Let's clean the water of the Po Delta !". Coal, Lead, Fires & Blood: "Welcome to the Po Delta !"

2007-12-12T14:31:00.000+01:00

Press & Media, Latest News. il Resto del Carlino: “Let’s save Flamingos, victims of hunting”

2007-12-11T18:20:00.000+01:00

Rovigo: environmentalists protest poisoning of Flamingos: "Stop hunting in the Po Delta, remove the tons of lead from the polluted area !"

2007-12-09T22:02:00.000+01:00

A group of Italian environmentalists made a protest march with flags, signs and banners at Porto Caleri, Po Delta, on saturday 8th December. They made it against hunting in the Po Delta, that is still carried out using lead bullets that are poisoning to death for the second year dozens of Flamingos. Moreover they stop at Rovigo for collecting signatures of hundreds of citizens to promote the establishment of a National Park by banning hunters from the Po Delta. Finally, today 7 more dead Flamingos were found at Valle Pozzatini a 1 at the Comacchio salina.

The Rabbit’s Roar: “hunters are feeding Flamingos with lead bullets”

2007-12-07T14:05:00.000+01:00

A satiric radio broadcast entitled “The rabbit’s roar” transmitted on 5 December a joking song on the lead poisoning outbreack of Flamingos in the Po Delta, NE Italy, that is currently causing the death of dozens of birds. The sense of the song is that “hunters are feeding Flamingos with lead bullets”. The song is available by downloading it clicking the link "The Flamingo song" at right. A local newspaper has reported this topic in a bored way beacause of the bad publicity gave to the Rovigo province, where the Po Delta is located.

Flamingo-Sterben in Italien

2007-12-03T22:22:00.000+01:00

At the Austrian Television ORF 1

Schlagzeilen - 23.11.07 um 15.00 Uhr - ORF 1

Qualvoll verendet sind zahlreiche Flamingos aus dem Po-Delta in Norditalien. Der Grund für das Sterben der rosa Vögel ist eine Bleivergiftung, denn bei der Futtersuche im Schlamm haben sie die Geschoße aus den Gewehren von Jägern gefressen. Vor Jahren durfte hier im Nationalpark, der als UNESCO-Weltnaturerbe gilt, nämlich noch gejagt werden.Hunderte Flamingos bilden im Po-Delta die größte Brutkolonie Italiens. Viele von ihnen müssen jetzt gefangen und von Tierärzten untersucht werden. Zur Vorbeugung sollen nun regelmäßige Gesundheitskontrollen bei den Tieren durchgeführt werden. Dann können die Flamingos wieder unbeschwert im Nationalpark leben.

http://confetti2.orf.at/?tivi=news&story=2232

The outbreak of plumbism is spreading: dead Flamingos found in Comacchio and Dragojesolo

2007-11-30T09:35:00.001+01:00

More corpses of Flamingos were collected recently both in Comacchio (south of the Po Delta) and in Dragojesolo (north of Venice). Moreover, today the newspaper "La Stampa" of Turin offer to the readers a whole reportage of the story. The title is "Flamingos are dying in Italy - Slaughter of birds in the Po Delta: poisoned by the hunter". The reporter states that dead Flamingos were collected "in dozens" and that all evidences are pointing out an epidemic of plumbism due to the high number of lead pellets on the bottom of the lagoons, where Flamingos are currently feeding. They are attracted by the artificial fodder offered by the lagoon owners to the ducks to make faithful them to be finally shot.

The lead shot from a single shotshell may kill more than 60 Ducks or 23 Swans

2007-11-25T22:34:00.000+01:00

The lead pellets from a unique shotgun shell is enough to poison mortally from 40 to more than 60 adult Mallard ducks. It depedes either from the other healthy conditions of the birds or the climate.

In the same way, a shotshell may kill 23 adult Swans with the effect of its lead bullets collected from the birds in the bottom of a lake.

Source:
http://www.univers-nature.com/dossiers/plomb/plomb-3.html

Collection of dead Flamingos in the Po Delta, november 2007

2007-11-22T16:01:00.001+01:00

Pictures courtesy of Emilio Nessi

Repeated poisoning of Flamingos in the Po Delta

2007-11-22T14:31:00.000+01:00

In November 2006, more than 20 Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) were found dead in the Po Delta, NE Italy, because of a severe event of lead shot poisoning. 16 of them were collected and several lead pellets were present in their gizzard cavities. Chemical and histopathological analyses confirmed the suspect of lead shot poisoning. The average of lead concentration in hepatic tissue was 108,41 ppm, a value higher than 8 ppm, the threshold in aquatic birds(*). This case confirms the importance to forbid the lead pellets used in hunting shotgun shells in Italian wetlands. Nevertheless, local regional government never agreed to stop using lead pellets in the protected wetlands, so more cases of dead Flamingos were registered in the same area exactly one year later.

(*)Reference:

Giuseppe ARCANGELI, Amedeo MANFRIN, Giovanni BINATO, Roberta DE NARDI, Stefano VOLPONI, Marta VASCELLARI, Franco MUTINELLI, Calogero TERREGINO., 2007. [Lead poisoning in wild birds - A research on Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) in the Po river Delta. In Italian with English summary] Avvelenamento da piombo in uccelli selvatici - Indagine su Fenicotteri (Phoenicopoterus roseus) nel Delta del fiume Po. Obiettivi & Documenti Veterinari, 9:39-45.

The Dangers of Lead for Birds

2007-11-22T10:39:00.000+01:00

How and where lead accumulates.
When a shotgun shell is fired, only a small fractionof the shot strikes the target. The rest of the pellets fall back to earth, where the pellets accumulate in the soil either on land or on the bottom of wetlands or other water bodies. Near waterfowl blinds or in agricultural fields where hunting activity is high, lead shot historically accumulated in substantial amounts.

The Dangers of Lead for Birds
Birds’ digestive systems.

Birds are poisoned when they ingest lead shot found in the soil or in wetlands. Because birds lack teeth, they swallow their food whole. Along with their food, birds swallow small pebbles, called grit, which grind the food in the gizzard. Aquatic birds, particularly ducks, geese, and swans, use the sensitive tissues in their bills to detect particles of food and grit in the soil or in mud at the bottoms of lakes and wetlands – but waterfowl are unable to distinguish lead shot from pebbles, and may also ingest the toxic lead pellets.
Lead’s deadly effects.
Lead pellets enter the gizzard, where they are ground into smaller particles and partially dissolved by digestive acids. The dissolved lead combines with other elements in the bird’s digestive tract and is absorbed into the bloodstream, where it inhibits the ability of hemoglobin to carry oxygen, and reduces the number of red blood cells. Depending on the dose of lead, it may take only a few days for the bird to experience anemia, and its muscles weaken. If the anemia is severe enough, the bird may lack the strength to eat, and slowly starve to death or die from the failure of vital internal organs (Bellrose 1975), or from neurological damage. Furthermore, weakened birds are more vulnerable to accidents, hypothermia, and predators, so their ability to survive is reduced even if the dose of lead itself is not lethal.

Toxic doses and wildlife mortality.

Lead is extremely toxic if eaten and absorbed into the blood. Symptoms of lead poisoning can appear as soon as four days after ingestion of as few as two to three pellets, with death occurring in 17 to 21 days. A single pellet has been shown to be lethal to birds as large as swans. Controlled studies conducted in the 1950s showed that ducks that ingested four 0.11-inch-diameter lead shot pellets suffered a mortality rate 41% higher than those that were free of lead (Bellrose 1975). The Canadian Wildlife Service estimated that 250,000 waterfowl died per year from lead poisoning in Canada (Scheuhammer and Norris 1995). It estimated that several million more waterfowl suffer sub-lethal effects, resulting in lower survival rates and reduced breeding success. Before the 1991 prohibition on lead shot for waterfowl hunting, it was estimated that two to three percent of the autumn and winter populations of waterfowl across the U.S. fell victim to lead poisoning each year (Bellrose 1976, p. 73). Lead shot in the environment also causes secondary poisoning of wildlife. This may happen when scavengers or predators such as owls, hawks, and eagles ingest lead while feeding on prey containing lead pellets, or on prey with lead-contaminated muscles and internal organs. The high number of endangered Bald Eagles lost to secondary lead poisoning in the 1970s was one of the primary reasons for the federal ban on lead shot for waterfowl hunting.

Silent killing of Flamingos: the beginning of the story

2007-11-22T09:49:00.000+01:00

Po Delta, S of Venice, NE Italy: a complex of wetlands and lagoons of high interest from the wildlife point of view. Flamingos start to visit the area early the nineties of last century and start to breed early this century. Finally they "discover" a "new food resource" constituted by seeds and other food made available in the inner lagoos by the owners for duck-hunting purpose. The picture shows Flamingos feeding among ducks in the Po Delta.