At least 2,000 mallard ducks have died within a few days in a remote area of southern Idaho, a development that confounded state wildlife officials Wednesday.
Only mallards are affected – not crows, eagles, magpies, geese or any other species of duck.
“Quite honestly, we don’t know what’s going on,” said Dave Parrish, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “It’s a small localized area – we’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Wildlife investigators have been collecting the birds along Land Springs Creek, near Oakley, about 150 miles southeast of Boise, since the weekend.
A hunter found 10 dead ducks along the creek last Friday. When Fish and Game agents arrived on the scene Saturday, they discovered more than 500 dead birds, and the numbers keep increasing.
Parrish said that while authorities aren’t ruling anything out, the symptoms the ducks display and necropsy results so far point to a bacterial infection.
Lesions have been found on the lungs of the birds, and evidence of hemorrhaging in the heart walls. Authorities are especially puzzled that the malady seems confined to mallards. “You would normally think that a bacterial infection would affect all the waterfowl in the area,” Parrish said.
However, Dr. Mark Drew, a wildlife veterinarian with the department, thinks that may be because of the small area involved. The dead ducks have been found along about a half mile of the creek.
Water and soil samples have been taken in the area and scientists suspect that chemicals from nearby feedlots or farms may have contaminated the creek.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is also taking part in the investigation, primarily to establish if the die-off has any link to avian flu.
Parrish calls that chance “highly remote.”
Drew agreed. “The Pacific Flyway Council has tested more than 20,000 birds across the western United States – there’s no evidence that avian flu is anywhere in North America. The odds of it suddenly appearing in a small creek in southern Idaho are very small,” he said.
Tissue samples from the birds have been sent to labs in Wisconsin, Idaho and Washington state. Results are expected back as early as today. In the meantime, signs have been posted warning hunters not to consume the local waterfowl.
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