February 12, 2016 6:12am
AAP
Mystery surrounds annual
WA bird deaths
Wildlife officers are
working to solve a mysterious spate of bird deaths occurring annually in Western Australia
Scores of corellas have
died each February and March for the past five years, according to Department
of Parks and Wildlife officer Chris Roy, who says the event coincides with
heavy rainfall followed by warm weather.
"The corellas are
either consuming or coming in contact with something, we're still not sure what
that is," Mr Roy told AAP on Friday.
He said no other bird
species had been affected by the mystery illness - with symptoms that include
lethargy, poor motor function and green diarrhoea - while toxicology results
were yet to yield conclusive results.
"Some of the birds,
with a bit of care and rest, come good but others die and others are humanely
euthanased by the vet," he said.
Mr Roy said close to 100
corellas died last year, while 30 deaths had been recorded so far this year,
with more test samples recently sent to Perth
DPAW officers had been
able to link the deaths to a specific area in the town of Tom Price
"Its a little bit of
a mystery. We had a lot of tests done last year and they all came back negative
for a cause, so we've got on to it early this year," Mr Roy said.
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