Cyprus-Forum.com

[Trendy]

So far there is a dead rate of over 100 flamingos in Cyprus until now. Most of them were poisoned. The government is doing a great job to hide what is going on. Vets have offered to help for free but were denied as they could recover what is the course of dead. The so called cleaning up of the sold lake never happened so poor birds fly all the way from Africa to Cyprus to be poisoned. Many birds you can see for days isolated and alone in the lake are already marked to die, as nobody will give them medical attention. This animals are a threaten species but nobody really cares what happened to them. How sad is this and Cyprus wants to call themselves a European country.

[paliometoxo]

welcome to the forum, yes very sad that such things could happen in cyprus like the amount of dead cats you see ont he roads, have you noticed that also? very bad the way some people treat the enimals

[Trendy]

shame peopel dont take responsibility for animals

[paliometoxo]

no, i used to date this girl from england and she was an animal person i dont know what its called but every time some one would leave puppies or grown dogs or other animals in bags on the side of the roads and leave them for dead i felt so sorry for them, once me and her found a puppy and took it and kept it, she had a broken leg and if it was taken tot he shelter it would of died, she says this type of thing happens all the time in england and in cyprus i see men taking their dogs for walks they sit in the car and drive along with the dog walking beside it!, i cant believe peole could do such things its horrible to even hear of it let alone see it.

i wish there was more we could do Trendy.

do you currently live in cyprus? from usa? if you dont mind me asking

[kafenes]

THIRTY FIVE flamingos are thought to have died after consuming lead shot in Larnaca's salt lake, it emerged yesterday.
Samples taken from the birds' livers last week indicate that fatal levels of lead, likely to have come from lead shot left behind after the closure of waterside clay pigeon shooting range, were the cause of death.
Nicos Kassinis, Wildlife Biologist for the Game Fund, has spent 10 years working with the flamingos. He said yesterday: "We sent liver samples to the Veterinary Department, and the results showed their livers had several times the toxic level. We have also had a few deaths in Akrotiri, where the birds sometimes fly onto. However, we cannot say there is a correlation between the two yet."
This year has seen record numbers of flamingos, with over 10,000 arriving on the island in total. Kassinis said "We had around 6,000 in January, 3000 in February, and though we do not have the figures yet, we expect around 1,500 this month."
The large numbers coincide with the highest water levels for years.
Birdlife Cyprus, Spokesman, Martin Hellicar, said yesterday that the record water levels have extended the lake's boundaries into areas where lead shot remains from the old shooting range.
The new instances of lead poisoning have likely occurred, he said, because flamingos and other filter feeders, such as shell ducks and Shovellers, move to the shallower areas near the shoreline.
"This incident shows that there is still a problem with the substrate."
Authorities organised a large scale clean up of the area in 2003, after the shooting range closed. However, it seems that some lead shot has remained in the new feeding areas.
Asked if the authorities might consider a second sweep of the lake floor to remove remaining lead, Pantelis Hadjiyerou, Director of the Game Fund, said "I do not think that cleaning will be appropriate, because the destruction to the ecology from the cleaning would be worse than the effects of the lead that is there. The percentage of birds that died from lead poisoning is very low, and it is not certain that it came from this lake."
He added that a greater problem for the flamingos is a type of parasite that has been found in their trachea, and the trachea of other birds. Local experts have not determined if this parasite is resident in Cyprus, or if the birds arrive with it.
For Kassinis and other experts, the priority for authorities is to step up the monitoring and testing of toxins in the water. "We need to do more (in terms of) monitoring. At the moment we are periodically collecting samples and testing. This should be continued and expanded, especially with the nearby housing and recently expanded airport."
A large part of the lake now sits inside the expanded airport. "This expansion has surely put pressure on the lake's eco-system" he said.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/recor ... r/20100317


Starnge, no mention of the toxic fumes from the jet airplanes flying over the salt lake.