Flamingos poisoned by unlawful lead pellets in Greek lagoon

On a rustic road that the locals own dubbed ‘Flamingo Avenue’ Stavros Kalpakis walks alongside the astronomical reeds of Agios Mamas, a minute northern Greek lagoon, peering by binoculars.

The grizzled environmentalist places on his water resistant waders and boots and steps into knee-deep water. When he returns moments later, he is defending a lifeless purple flamingo—thought to be one of dozens realized within the region in contemporary weeks, killed by lead poisoning.

Around 50 of the majestic purple birds are known to own died to date within the minute lagoon in Greece’s northern Halkidiki peninsula some 580 kilometres (360 miles) north of Athens, Kalpakis, head of the Motion for Flora and fauna organisation, tells AFP.

Of nearly a dozen flamingos retrieved by the community for scientific attention, none will possible be saved.

“Flamingos eat minute pebbles to help with digestion, and they also’re ingesting the shrapnel from bullets… it’s giving them lead poisoning,” says Ellie Bridgeman, a 20-one year-outmoded volunteer working with the community.

Tests confirmed that the explanation of loss of life changed into as soon as lead poisoning, which furthermore threatens folks, stated Sofia Prousali, thought to be one of many organisation’s volunteer vets.

“We ran checks for avian flu and the West Nile virus and so all of them got right here help harmful,” Prousali stated.

“The entire birds that had these symptoms had been realized to own pellets in their stomachs,” she stated, including that there were possible assorted lifeless birds hidden within the plush vegetation which own no longer been recovered.

Agios Mamas is thought to be one of Europe’s Natura 2000 natural world selection regions, and is house to nearly 60 assorted chicken species.

Even extra importantly, flamingos had been recorded breeding right here closing one year, the first time this has ever came about in Greece.

‘Human interference’

“Prior efforts failed, totally on fable of of human interference with flamingo colonies,” says Anna Panagiotou, head of the management authority for protected areas within the broader Thermaic Gulf.

“It’d be genuinely disappointing if this sort of clear pattern changed into as soon as thwarted by the insistence of about a of our fellow electorate in flouting environmental rules,” she adds.

The utilization of lead shot in wetlands has been unlawful in Greece since 2013, and the EU in November stated it would possibly well most likely perhaps well ban its squawk in all wetlands below its framework rules for chemical substances.

But Greek hunters unruffled squawk pellets containing lead, natural world teams impart.

According to the European Rate, each one year 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of lead are released into wetlands round the bloc from lead gunshot.

For his or her part, the local Greek searching association says the challenge is being unfairly exploited in portray to account for restrictions in opposition to them.

“We own steady indications that the case of the lifeless flamingos, no matter its validity, is faded for anti-searching targets,” the searching association of Macedonia and Thrace stated in a recent assertion.

But Quentin, a 22-one year-outmoded French volunteer, says he has heard gunshots within the region.

“Even though searching changed into as soon as forbidden below coronavirus restrictions, we would unruffled hear photos from poachers. It is unbelievable.”

© 2021 AFP