site.bta Twenty-one Dead Pelicans Found in Sreburna Reserve

Twenty-one Dead Pelicans Found in Sreburna Reserve

Silistra, on the Danube, March 25 (BTA) - Twenty-one pelicans
have died in the Sreburna Reserve and were removed Tuesday by a
team of the reserve's security guards and experts of the
Regional Food Safety Directorate.

Head of the Regional Food Safety Directorate Dr Sebahtin Halid
said that the cause of the death of the birds cannot be
established in situ, but only in the Central Veterinary
Laboratory in Sofia. Halid said the pelicans may have died from
an illness, from poisoning or from overpopulation of the colony.
 Data from the reserve show 65 registered pairs of pelicans. The
 check conducted on Tuesday revealed the presence of newly
hatched young pelicans.

People from the reserve and local people claim this is the first
 such big death incidence in the facility. Due to the nesting
period when birds are not to be disturbed, no checks had been
made recently in the reserve.

People from the reserve said that white still birds were seen
for some days on the monitor of the video system in the colony,
which were assumed to be dead ones. The deaths were established
on Tuesday.

The Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water in Rousse,
also on the Danube, said that the Environment and Water Ministry
 has been alerted about the pelican deaths.

A faeces infested discharge of water was established in the
Sreburna Lake in February but it has been terminated.

The Sreburna area was proclaimed a nature reserve in 1948 and is
 a Ramsar site since 1975. The reserve was recognized as World
Natural Heritage Site under the 1972 Convention for the
Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and
included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.