GULLIVER, Mich. (AP) —
Authorities say they've found the bodies of about 700 water birds along a
stretch of northern Lake Michigan shoreline in the Upper Peninsula.
The
Mining Journal of Marquette (http://bit.ly/PQ1Gun )
says authorities suspect that the birds died of Type-E botulism.
The 694 dead birds were
found in Schoolcraft County near the unincorporated village of Gulliver. They
include 247 common loons, 152 horned grebes, 98 red-necked grebes, 73
long-tailed ducks and 64 white-winged scoters.
Authorities say there
also were smaller numbers of ring-billed gulls, double-crested cormorants,
red-breasted mergansers and herring gulls.
The Michigan
Department of Natural Resources says Type-E botulism bacteria cause a
toxin that paralyses birds and fish. Similar die-offs happened in the Upper
Peninsula in 2007 and near Sleeping Bear Dunes National lakeshore in northern
Lower Peninsula in 2006.
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