Re: Bird Botulism?

[Don Hockaday <hockaday@panam.edu>]

Great Lakes Beach Net:

Richard Whitman asked:
>I have a question?
>
>A few summers ago we started noticing gulls dying in particularlly high
>number in August at a beach we were studying.  These birds at first seemed
>'drunk' at first, then began losing coordination and equilibrium.  They
>would then lose the ability to walk and would soon died thereafter. That
>was the same time old masses of anaerobic Cladophora was accumulating on
>the beach.  Lately, I've been wondering if these bird might have picked up
>some botulism from the algal mats.  As anybody else noticed this
>phenomenon? Can you remember if it was coincidental with these anaerobic
>mats or during this season?   Would you be on the look out this summer for
>it, especially if you have big mats of Cladophora?  Let me know what you
>think.
>
>Richard Whitman

Richard,

I would suspect botulism from eating dead bivalves -- which might be 
associated with smothering by the Cladophora bloom. I can post a 
query to ALGAE-L if you like.

Anthony (Tony) Amos as the University of Texas at Austin Marine 
Science Institute in Port Aransas documented some similar symptoms in 
Cormorants a while back. The characteristic symptom was, as I recall, 
inability to hold their heads upright.  I will CC: him on this reply 
to BeachNet Great Lakes.

-- 
Don Hockaday
South Padre Island, TX
mailto:hockaday@panam.edu

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
beachnet is hosted by the Great Lakes Information Network:
http://www.great-lakes.net
To unsubscribe from this list: send mail to majordomo@great-lakes.net
with the command 'unsubscribe beachnet' in the body of your message. No
quotes or subject line are required.
About : http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/beachnet/beachnet.info
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *