The Department of Conservation is investigating the poisoning of 10 black-billed gulls in Te Anau.
Five were found sick on the foreshore in January and euthanised, while another five had already died. Testing revealed the birds had ingested alphachloralose, a toxic chemical used for bird control.
Te Anau operations manager John Lucas told state media the department was appealing for information about its use in the area, describing the deaths as a blow for an endemic species already in rapid decline in Southland due to predators, habitat loss and land use changes, with some studies estimating up to an 80 percent decline over 30 years, and noting the gulls are protected under the Wildlife Act.
DOC, this would not happen at all if you were not so liberal about promoting poison yourselves. What a sick country.
Seems John Lucas has got his list the wrong way round, bird decline rests on the shoulders of, habitat loss, land use changes and very lastly, predators. Think of the horror if it was presented as human conflict and not predators!