New South Wales authorities are investigating the possible poisoning and mass deaths of more than 150 little corellas in Newcastle.
Kate Randolph, the acting president of Hunter Wildlife Rescue, described the incident as “extremely confronting” and said volunteers and local vets were doing everything they could to rescue surviving, severely sick birds.
“Everyone’s working together. It’s a heartbreaking situation.”
The NSW Environment Protection Authority was investigating the cause of the deaths, Randolph said, which involved large numbers of corellas, as well as a few sulphur-crested cockatoos.
Volunteer Kerry Walker said Hunter Wildlife Rescue started receiving numerous reports of sick and dead birds on Monday morning, centred on the suburbs of Hamilton and Carrington, which were continuing on Tuesday.
Usually a playful, social bird, corellas often flocked together in their hundreds in Carrington, the suburb where the highest density of reports were coming from, Walker said.
“They’re usually feeding on the open grass. They’re a very playful bird. They love to play around all the boats at the marina, and they’ll perch on the masts and play with all the gear. They’re very loud and raucous.”
Some birds were still alive, she said, but clearly unwell. “When you approach them they can’t fly, they can barely move.
“They try to spread their wings, and they just literally topple forward.”
More severe cases were drooling or had bloody diarrhoea. It was distressing for volunteers, she said.
Dr Tania Bishop, a vet with wildlife rescue group Wires, said poisoning was a likely explanation, although whenever a group of animals died, authorities would also be checking for potential diseases and biosecurity risks like avian influenza.
Such poisonings – whether malicious or caused by contamination – were usually sporadic. But Bishop said there had been a particularly high number of mass wildlife poisonings in the greater Sydney area during the past year.
Bishop said the results of toxicology studies identifying potential poisons or toxins could take weeks.
She said the incident was a reminder that feeding birds came with risks, encouraging the birds to trust humans, which made them more vulnerable to deliberate poisoning.
Members of the public who came across a sick or dead animal were encouraged to call the emergency animal disease hotline (1800 675 888), wildlife rescue or the EPA (131 555).
