Dead, sick and injured ducks and birdlife continued to be pulled from the Bells Swamp Conservation Reserve just outside Maldon this week.
Up to 150 plus birds were recovered by volunteers up to Sunday and more than 260 in a massive Parks Victoria operation at the swamp on Tuesday.
Parks Victoria District Manager Suzanne Hughes confirmed more than 350 birds have been found dead at Bells Swamp Nature Reserve between Thursday and 4pm Tuesday, with injured or sick birds being removed for monitoring and care.
“Samples have been taken for testing and we will progressively receive results over the coming week,” she said.
“Parks Victoria have appointed an Incident Controller to manage response to this incident, with 25 personnel on site Tuesday including staff, vets and volunteers from Parks Victoria, Wildlife Victoria, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and other groups,” Ms Hughes said.
“We appreciate the support and concern of community members, but no further volunteers are required at this stage and we’re asking that people stay away from the reserve until further notice. It is important that disturbance to the birds is limited, and all activities are managed to ensure animal welfare and responder safety. Do not enter the water, do not handle sick or dead birds without authorisation, and take care that pets are kept away from the area,” she said.
The beginnings of the mass casualty event were first reported on January 29.
Local wildlife carer Sam saw a post on Castlemania where a local resident reported seeing 13 dead ducks at the site and queried what had occurred. As a bird lover he decided to head out and investigate.
Sam and two fellow wildlife rescue volunteers initially located 25 deceased wood ducks, teal ducks, pacific black ducks, purple swamp hens and dusky moorhens and sick ducks exhibiting symptoms of C. botulinum (Avian Botulism) were also recovered and taken into care.
“Initially there were fears that it may have been an act of illegal duck shooting, however on closer investigation it appears that the ducks may have died as a result of poisoning or disease,” he said.
Over the next week the wildlife rescuer and fellow volunteers visited the site daily and had retrieved close to 150 plus dead birds and 49 sick birds by last Sunday evening.
“The sick birds are a mix of pacific black, teals, wood ducks, herons, coots and a darter,” he said.
Hopefully testing will shed some light on the issue shortly so that authorities can look to combat the cause.