Ornithologists speak of it as a
“hecatomb”
or a
“disaster”
.
The avian flu epidemic, caused by the H5N1 virus, is particularly deadly for wildlife this year.
The alert was launched by the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) which observed the decline of the colony of northern gannets nesting in the national nature reserve of Sept-Îles, in Brittany (Côtes-d'Armor).
The northern gannet, whose wingspan can reach 1.80 meters, is the largest seabird in Europe.
The association estimates that several thousand birds have been killed by the flu since July 1.
“We observed, thanks to our camera which films the summit of Rouzic Island live, a loss of 80% of the chicks, who died of starvation due to the absence of their parents
, testifies Pascal Provost, the curator of this marine sanctuary.
Since mid-August, the infectious foci have spread to the entire colony, which has 19,000 pairs, and the phenomenon is now visible...
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