Hordes of seagulls circling Dunedin's Green Island landfill are in for some tough love, courtesy of the Dunedin City Council.
The "tough" part will come in the form of poisoned bait being scattered at the landfill, ready to be scoffed by black-backed seagulls picking over scraps.The "love" part will come later, when Delta contractors working for the council rescue and resuscitate other birds drugged unintentionally.
Delta landfill engineer Dave Hanan said the company had been granted approval to use alpha-chloralose, a narcotic that induced lethal hypothermia. Use of the chemical had been approved by the Department of Conservation; it was needed because black-backed seagulls habitually carried off scraps from the landfill and dropped them elsewhere, he said. read more here
"If birds see a few of their seagull buddies die, they get the idea this is not conducive to long life, and stay away."
Do birds really think like this???
related article on phoam blog here seagulls dropping rubbish, which then gets washed into the kaikorai estuary. Although the winds do way worse damage, and most items the birds pick up would be organic, and not pose too much of a threat to the environment.
UPDATE 19th August 2009 Bird Poisoning Programme Stopped
From the ODT, by Chris Morris - Wed, 19 Aug 2009 read full article here
Council water and waste services manager John Mackie confirmed the suspension yesterday, admitting he did not know the drug, alpha-chloralose, was to be used.
He said he only learned of the poison plan after details were published in the Otago Daily Times on August 11, and "immediately" instructed council staff and contractors to suspend the operation.
"Will the DCC be liable for prosecution under the Wildlife Act if protected birds are killed during the process?"
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1 comments:
Nice image. I liked it.
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