Police investigate as raven found poisoned on Ruabon moor – near where satellite-tagged hen harriers vanished last year

Published: Saturday, Jun 1st, 2019

A dead raven found on Ruabon Moor, near World’s End, has been confirmed as deliberately poisoned – triggering a police investigation.

The bird was found dead on 28 August 2018 by a man who had been out photographing birds.

He said: “I was coming home from Wrexham when I noticed the bird on the ground, away from the road in a little clearing of grass. It was upside down, its eyes sunken, and its feet in the air. It didn’t look like it had been dead for long.”

Thinking it may have been shot, he contacted the RSPB’s Investigations Unit. Following liaison with the North Wales Police, Welsh Government arranged for toxicology tests on the bird. This revealed that the raven had been deliberately poisoned with the highly toxic insecticide bendiocarb which had been most likely been applied to a bait.

Police enquires in the area have failed to identify anyone responsible.

Ravens are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Killing one is a criminal offence and could result in an unlimited fine or up to six months in jail.

Ruabon Moor holds a significant proportion of the Welsh black grouse population and is an area managed for red grouse shooting. In 2018, two rare hen harriers named Heulwen and Aalin went off the radar in this general area, the birds had been fitted with satellite-tracking devices as part of the EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project.

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At least seven bald eagles killed by banned pesticide in Maryland

U.S. NEWS

The rare birds were poisoned to death after ingesting a farm pesticide that's been illegal since 2009.

May 3, 2019, 6:16 PM GMT+1

By David K. Li

At least seven bald eagles have been killed in the past nine weeks on Maryland's Eastern Shore after the rare birds were exposed to a powerful pesticide that's been illegal for a decade, officials said Friday.

Six of them died in Kent County from ingesting carbofuran, which had once been sold under the trade name Furadan, according to a statement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Maryland Natural Resources.

Then on April 3, authorities found three bald eagles that were sickened in Talbot Country after feeding on the carcass of a red fox that officials suspect was killed by carbofuran. One of those eagles has since died.

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Poisoned elephant carcass kills 94 critically endangered vultures in Zimbabwe

4 Jul 2017

By Obaka Torto and Jude Fuhnwi

Ninety four critically endangered White Backed vultures have been reported dead after feeding on a poisoned elephant carcass recently in Zimbabwe. The incident occurred in Gonarezhou, a small locality near the town of Chiqualaquala, an area which has become a hub for illegal wildlife trade along the country’s border with Mozambique.

It is unclear how the elephants were poisoned, but a wildlife poisoning and mortality report from Frankfurt Zoological Society experts indicated that the elephant was killed by a watermelon laced with what is suspected to be Temik, a carbamate pesticide. Experts are analyzing samples in a laboratory to determine the poison.

“The tusks of the elephant were removed, so not sure whether the cause is accidental, secondary poisoning or deliberate lacing of carcass to cause vulture deaths,” according to the report.

Conservationists working at the Gonarezhou National Park have said the motive for poisoning is likely to be ivory as only the elephant’s tusks were missing at the time the carcass was discovered, whereas all body parts of the vultures were intact. However, vultures are also deliberately poisoned by elephant poachers to avoid detection by wildlife authorities because of vulture circling behaviour and could perhaps be an additional motivation to poison vultures.

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Vulture poisoners silently killing other wildlife

Early this month a member of the public alerted the police in Portugal for a dead fox near a public footpath near Pinhel, just outside the LIFE RUPIS intervention area. Upon inspection, a dead fox, and a dying azure-winged magpie, were found, near some baits (rests of meat and pork ears). 

All signs pointed to poisoning: the magpie was found with seizures, with contracted feet and muscles, while the fox was in a good condition. Subsequent post-mortems realised at CERVAS, a Wildlife rehabilitation centre in nearby Gouveia, indeed suggested poisoning, probably by carbamates, notably because of haemorrhages in several organs and contracted mouth and mandibles. 

Samples from the key organs were then sent to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Lisbon, for further analysis, to try to determine the poisoning agent, under the LIFE RUPIS project. 

The use of poison continues to threat vultures and other wildlife in Portugal. The LIFE RUPIS is expected to give new impetus and capacity to fight this threat, with establishment of an anti-poisoning dog team in this region, that is now under training and is going to be deployed soon.

Vulture Conservation Foundation
1 February 2016

Source 

Rare vultures nesting in Israel poisoned by farmers aiming to kill wolves

The poison in the bodies of dead livestock is racking an Israeli vulture population that has already shrunk in recent years.

By Zafrir Rinat | Apr. 19, 2015 | 1:29 PM

Two vultures are in critical condition Sunday, suspected of being sickened by farmers who spread illegal poison in the carcasses of cows and sheep as a way to kill wild dogs, wolves and jackals.

The number of vultures and eagles nesting in Israel has fallen sharply in recent years, so these and other recent poisonings represent a serious blow to the country’s wildlife.

The two vultures were found in the Shunra Sands region in the south, which is used by farmers and also by the army for training. The birds were found over the weekend and sent to the animal hospital at the Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan, commonly known as Safari Park.

Alongside the vultures lay the bodies of two other birds of prey — one kite and one Egyptian vulture — and three wild dogs. All the animals had died from the poison, whose source was probably the decaying body of a dead sheep, which was found nearby.

This was the third incident in six weeks in which wild animals have been poisoned in either the Negev in the south or the Golan Heights in the north.

This weekend’s poisonings were discovered after an exhausted vulture was spotted at the Shunra Sands. It was suffering heart problems and was treated with atrophine, which can neutralize harm to the nervous system. Its condition improved.

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Bald eagles, other birds found sick after eating poison

Bald eagles, otherbirds mysteriously eating poison, dying around central Florida

OCALA, Fla. -

An animal sanctuary reports that several birds, including bald eagles, are eating poison and dying around central Florida.

Workers at the Animis Foundation have been picking up sick birds from the Marion County Landfill and nearby neighborhoods, including two bald eagles found this week. One of the eagles later died. Many of the birds tested positive for pentobarbital, which is used to humanely euthanize animals.

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Lead Ammo Poisons Condors in Grand Canyon

Douglas Main, Staff Writer

Date: 16 April 2013 Time: 11:54 AM ET

Critically endangered condors that live near the Grand Canyon are being poisoned by lead used in ammunition, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. So far this year, seven out of the 80 California condors that live in the area have died, and three of these deaths have been "definitively linked to lead poisoning from ingesting spent lead ammunition fragments in carrion, and lead poisoning is suspected in the other four deaths," according to the group. 

These raptors, the largest birds in North America, are especially vulnerable to poisoning from ammunition because they feed on dead animals, which have often been shot by hunters using lead bullets and shotgun pellets, studies on the birds have shown. The lead can then concentrate in their bodies, to devastating effect.

"Lead is dangerous to people and wildlife, even at very low levels, which is why it is critical that we take mandatory actions to remove it from ammunition and require less toxic alternatives," said Sandy Bahr, with the Sierra Club, in the statement.

http://www.livescience.com/28751-lead-ammo-poisons-condors.html

Lead bullet fragments poison rare US condors

By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, BBC News

California condors are under continuing threat from lead ammunition fragments

Conservationists in the United States say that fragments of lead ammunition continue to take a desperate toll on one of the country's rarest birds.

Since December, seven wild California condors from a population of 80 have died in the Grand Canyon area.

Three of the deaths have been definitively linked to ingesting lead from bullets in the carcasses of prey.

Campaigners are calling for a ban on the use of lead ammunition on public lands.

 “The continuous deaths of Grand Canyon condors from lead poisoning is preventable, ”  Jeff MillerCentre for Biological Diversity

The California condor is one of the biggest US birds but is considered critically endangered according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Carrion shooting

In an effort to save the high flying species, 166 of the birds have beenreintroduced in Arizona and Utah since 1996.

Of these, 81 have died or disappeared. But experts believe that at least 38 of the birds have died as a result of eating lead fragments left in the guts piles and carcasses of game, shot by hunters. Condors are scavengers and mainly eat large amounts of carrion.

Campaigners like Jeff Miller from the Centre for Biological Diversity say there are actions that can be taken to reduce the risk to the birds.

"The continuous deaths of Grand Canyon condors from lead poisoning is preventable if we finally treat toxic lead ammunition as we did lead paint and gasoline," he said.

Many of the condors require treatment each year as a consequence of lead exposure

Even though the Arizona Game and Fish Department distributes copper ammunition free to hunters, a small number continue to use lead. As a result each year up to half of the wild Grand Canyon condors require chelation treatment to remove high levels of lead from their blood.

"It is critical that we take mandatory actions to remove it from ammunition and require less toxic alternatives, said Sandy Bahr from the Sierra Club.

"Requiring non lead ammunition for hunting on public land would be an important step in limiting lead exposure for condors and other wildlife," she added.

A group of scientists, doctors and public health experts have recently issued a statement calling for lead ammunition for hunting to be phased out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22174702