Mass poisoning of corvids in Serbia threatens imperial eagles
By Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS), BirdLife Serbia. Orginal article in Serbian can be found here.
Members of the Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia (DZPPS) found more than 800 dead birds on the arable land near the Kikinda village of Nakovo. Among them were at least 434 jackdaws, a species protected by lovostaj, and 373 jackdaws, which are protected by law as a protected species. All the circumstances point to mass poisoning, which should be confirmed by laboratory analyses at a veterinary institute. If confirmed, this will be the largest single mass poisonings in this part of Europe.
On Saturday , Ranko Samardžija, a resident of Nakov and beekeeper, went to visit his beehives at two locations north of the village. Already near the last houses, he noticed dead birds first on the road, then along the canal, and finally those hanging from trees and bushes. Concerned for the safety of bees and informed by the terrible poisoning that hit Kikinda beekeepers in 2015 when 1,600 bee colonies were killed, Ranko recorded the disturbing scenes with his phone and shared them on Facebook. The video, which was removed after a few hours due to pressure from the public, shows dead bees in the apiary, birds fighting for life in the treetops and many unable to fly from the fields.
Ranko was called by Milan Ružic, executive director of DZPPS, shortly after sharing this video, and asked for more information. It is not only the poisoning of Jackdaws that was a cause for alarm: right next to Nakov, a pair of Eastern Imperial Eagles started building a nest this spring, and with a large number of poisoned birds in the fields there was concern they would attract raptors.
"On Saturday, March 2, in the evening hours, I sent a notice to the Provincial Institute for Nature Protection, the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office from Kikinda and the Unit for Suppression of Environmental Crime and Environmental Protection of the MUP and stated that we have suspicions of mass poisoning of birds near Nakov, and that we justifiably fear for the fate of the Eastern Imperial Eagles in the area," says Ružic and continues: "We quickly organized a field team and on Sunday morning we were in Nakov. Since in Serbia there is no jurisdiction scheme in cases of animal poisoning, nor a protocol for action, I informed the local police station, which sent two police officers to the field .
The large death of birds quickly attracted the attention of the public, and an unexpectedly large number of policemen, veterinary inspectors, and workers from communal services were on site. Bird carcasses were found in an area of about 2 kilometre. Bag after bag, corpses arrived, which the attendees lined up and counted together. A team of police forensics collected and recorded the corpses. In the end, part of the carcasses was removed for analysis, and more than 800 dead birds were buried in a pit at the edge of the ploughed fields.
19 March 2024
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