Australian ecological mystery: "We literally didn't have any birds left to die."

[BurtWorm]

What's going on in Austin today? Anyone know? (What's going on *period*? :wtf: )

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=9249&lang=eng

Thousands of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why. Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery. All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing. The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found. Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm. On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone. District nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said the first reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards came in three weeks ago. More than 500 deaths had since been notified. But the calls stopped suddenly last week, reportedly because no birds were left.

"It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large areas of bushland," Mr Fitzgerald said. Birds Australia, the nation's main bird conservation group, said it had not heard of a similar occurrence. "Not on that scale, and all at the same time, and also the fact that it's several different species," chief executive Graeme Hamilton said. "You'd have to call that a most unusual event and one that we'd all have to be concerned about." He expected birds would return to the area once the problem - natural or man-made phenomenon - was fixed but said it was vital the cause was identified. The Department of Agriculture and Food, which conducted the autopsies, has almost ruled out an infectious process. Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.

Dr Sunderman said there were no leads yet on which of potentially hundreds of toxins might be responsible. Some birds were seen convulsing as they died. Michelle Crisp was one of the first to contact the DEC after finding dozens of dead birds on her property one morning. She told The Australian she normally had hundreds of birds in her yard, but that she and a neighbour counted 80 dead birds in one day. "It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she said. "It was like a moonscape, just horrible. "But the frightening thing for us, we didn't find any more birds after that. We literally didn't have any birds left to die."

[Junkdrawer]

1. So, the correct answer is "Birds. Yes birds were God's chosen creatures."...

They've been raptured.

[Theres-a]

2. Finally

I am now officially "Left Behind".

[Sequoia]

3. I haven't seen anything on the web, and you'd think there'd be something.

In the book, "Do Andorids Dream of Electric Sheep" it mentions that the birds were the first to die, just fell out of the sky on people's lawns. Written back in the 1970s or so, it is quite chilling to read this book today. I read it about 6 months ago and the libriarian said she had read it in college when it first came out and was a classic. Indeed, it was the book on which the movie, "Logan's Run" was based. However, the book has a few more interesting characters and all the animals are fake, even the insects sometimes.

[BurtWorm]

5. I thought Blade Runner was based on it.

The Phillip K. Dick book, you're talking about, right?

[Sequoia]

9. Dang it, you are correct. I was thinking of Blade Runner but

somehow put the other movie in instead. Yes, that is the book by Phillip K. Dick and it's a worthy read!

Thanks.

[BurtWorm]

10. By the way, there are a few other stories about this on the Internet

going back to December 28, when 60 birds were found dead in Esperance. Since then, the numbers of dead animals have escalated to the point described in the original post. All the sources are Australian, as far as I can tell.

This seems like a bog story to me. I've heard of Dead Zones in the ocean, but never in the air.

[alfredo]

11. They had that bird die off in austin yesterday.

[atommom]

15. Are you thinking of "The Sheep Look Up"?

That's a book that was full of ecological catastrophes, and it's the book the bird die-off reminded me of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep_Look_Up

[Sequoia]

18. Brunner's puppet of a president, affectionately called Prexy, is a dead ringer for our Dubya"

and that sabotage done by the Earth Liberation Front is pulled directly from the pages of the novel.


Why sheep in SF novels? Just curious.

Must be a good book because it's checked out in two libraries near me. Thanks.

[devilgrrl]

4. They can blame cats...

that's one of the reasons given to me when I asked why my travel mates (all Australians) why they didn't like cats. Because they killed all the birds. :crazy:

Seriously (seriesly!)

[I_Will]

6. Canary, meet the coal mine. n/t

[KittyWampus]

7. What is poisoining them outright, its poisoining us slowly.

[judaspriestess]

8. I say its all those toxic fumes being spewed by the tons

EVERYDAY from the war in Iraq. If people don't think thousands of pounds of burning fuel everyday isn't going to affect the atmosphere, they have another thing coming. Everyday you see nothing but burning cars, tanks, etc with this tremondously thick black smoke. Its crazy. This illegal war has a much wider impact than is being conveyed, which many of us already know.

[shanti]

12. and causing asthma in humans

it seems epidemic now:( i was just diagnosed a month ago, and NEVER suffered from this before and i'm 51. something is definitely up.

[pitohui]

16. perhaps not in west australia, australia, tho

i would be surprised if these were toxins from the iraq war

similar die-offs have been such causes as botulism carried by invasive tilapia fish in california, which killed many thousands of brown pelicans and untold numbers of other birds hmmm i'm thinking a decade ago

also a widespread die-off of swamp birds including bald eagles which turned out to be caused by a toxic algae growing in polluted areas of georgia, south carolina, etc.

most die-offs occurring this rapidly would indeed be a toxin but it can be complicated to work out, i believe the toxic algae was indirectly caused by fertilizer from big ag, the tilapia were brought to america from africa as a cheap fish to replace killed-off fisheries etc. and just happened to carry botulism in a bad batch i suppose

i definitely think there's a good chance this is human-caused but i would look to agricultural or even industrial practices first before pointing to iraq

just my humble opinion

this is off the top of my head and i may not be recalling all details perfectly, before quoting me, investigate bird kills yourself, i usually try to have cites or links but i'm a bit pressed for time this week

[judaspriestess]

21. its a combination of all

but the pollution Iraq is causing is going to have its affects.

[TZ]

13. pesticides

Maybe stuff like this will shut up people who want to bring DDT back. Supposedly to fight mosquito born illness like malaria (mostly in Africa, what a surprise-it doesn't matter if all those poor africans get ill from pesticides...)

[judaspriestess]

14. of course it doesn't matter

its population control.

[TZ]

24. kidding I hope?

And waterboarding is effective and not cruel. I know someone (used to work with them) who gave himself malaria to grow parasites for use in a crude vaccine. Not a nice disease. But DDT is bad too..

[ieoeja]

19. Better that they suffer malaria and other natural illnesses. n/t

:sarcasm:

[originalpckelly]

17. Weren't there a whole bunch of bird who died in Texas too?

:shrug:

[Beaverhausen]

20. Dear god- this is crazy!

[Sugarcoated]

22. At my husband's former employer, a steel mill here in PA

they were having trouble with birds in the big open rooms where they make the steel plates (the place was huge), the management told them to put out poison, so they did. Later that week the town found about thirty dead pigeons and the mill had to speak up and let them know why. I suspect the Austin birds were something similar. The ones in Australia, I have no idea if poison could wipe out a whole forest, or a town, of every bird. Tests will tell, I would think.

[NorthernSpy]

23. revenge of the Cat Gods...

Both Australia and Texas have experienced recent killings of cats in the name of bird conservation.


Shouldn't oughter done that...


We must find some way to appease them.

[malaise]

25. Wow

Wonder what caused this.

[seabeyond]

26. a point husband made this afternoon. the birds from austin is sent up here

to amarillo to the facilities that we have. all the animals that die over the state of texas in question come here. my hubby works on their computer system. they have talked about this in the past. birds fly in flocks. they can get into poisons somewhere and they fly off in flocks and land and die in the same space. say there is grain or something that is poisenious. they would all eat the same stuff, fly off and by the time their metabolism allowed the effect of poison they could be a pretty far distance from original spot. and they all ate it together, they all die together.

[theHandpuppet]

27. Here's a frightening scenario

Just wondering....

http://geology.about.com/cs/extinction/a/aa092803.htm
Methane prime suspect for greatest mass extinction
16:01 26 March 2002
NewScientist.com news service
Jeff Hecht

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Permo-Triassic extinction

The release of massive clouds of methane from icy hydrates buried under shallow ocean floors is the leading suspect for the most devastating extinction in the fossil record, according to a new analysis.

Methane best matches the unusual carbon-isotope fingerprints found at the scene of the crime, says Robert Berner of Yale University in Connecticut, US, though it cannot explain atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at the time.

Berner says: "It's possible that you could have a combination" of effects causing the mass extinction that ended the Permian period, 250 million years ago. The event wiped out the vast majority of marine species and left Europe a near-desert.

Many theories have been proposed to explain the extinction, including a comet or asteroid impact. Other ideas focus on two unusual events at the end of the Permian - the eruptions of two million cubic kilometres of lava across Siberia and unusual stratification of the oceans...

Erupting Waters
From Andrew Alden,
Your Guide to Geology.

An awesome mix of fire and water may lie behind mass extinctions

Stagnant water may have unexpected dangers. We already know that certain volcanic lakes can burst forth in clouds of choking gas. Now someone suggests that the ocean itself could erupt in explosive gas under the right—make that the wrong conditions.

The bursting lakes are Nyos and Monoun, in the central African nation of Cameroon. They occupy the craters of volcanoes, and the magma beneath them steadily leaks carbon dioxide gas into their deep waters. Many lakes in the tropics are stagnant (or meromictic), and over the years the bottom waters of Nyos and Monoun grow supercharged with gas. In 1984 something disturbed Monoun's balance, and like a champagne bottle uncorked, the lake erupted in a thick froth of carbon dioxide....

http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=1482
Gas Escaping From Ocean Floor May Drive Global Warming

July 19, 2006

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) – Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles.

Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes in the ocean floor of the Santa Barbara channel –– called Shane Seep –– near an area known as the Coal Oil Point seep field. The blowout sounded like a freight train, according to the divers.

Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere, according to the study's authors, all from UC Santa Barbara.

"Other people have reported this type of methane blowout, but no one has ever checked the numbers until now," said Ira Leifer, lead author and an associate researcher with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. "Ours is the first set of numbers associated with a seep blowout." Leifer was in a research boat on the surface at the time of the blowouts....

Also see:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/02/01/global_warming_methane_could_be_far_worse_than_carbon_dioxide.htm
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1714858
http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/dec01/feature_proxies.html
http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/jh031003.html
http://www.geo.vu.nl/~renh/methane-pulse.html
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:1QEDKtO0u4oJ:www.crimea-info.org/openpubl/klerkx.pdf+sudden+methane+releases+methane+clouds&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=safari

[Boomer]

28. If not now, then later

So many possible dangers to chose from, but this is probably the most frightening. Once the methane starts boiling off, there will be runaway warming, if not global fire storms.

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. Could this be related to outgassing of marine gas deposits?

Birds are known to be very sensitive to toxic gasses - the reason why canaries were used as an early warning system in mines. Check out the report, largely ignored in the media, of tankers reporting marine methane (other gasses such as toxic sulfur compounds would also be present) degassing off the US east coast:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x255463

And then tie that to this bizarre story of gas smelled all over Manhattan and even New Jersey:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3067329

No direct evidence I know of that the Australian birds died of toxic gas exposure, let alone from volatilized offshore methane (and other gasses) deposits, but it seems to me that this is a possibility that should be checked both for the birds and for the incident in Manhattan.

Added on edit: response #27 was written with the same idea. Seems plausible as a cause of death of the birds and also as the source of the gas smell (from the associated sufurous gasses; methane itself is odorless) in Manhattan and New Jersey. Tankers HAVE been reporting increased atmospheric levels, and outgassing from marine and land (as in the tundra) deposits has been predicted with global warming.