“The whole village is strewn with dead pigeons”: a strange death of birds in the Urals

About how the pigeon pestilence looks - in the material "MK".

Local residents began to write about the problem in the rural community in social networks. According to them, dead pigeons can be found almost all over Voznesenka: on roads, roadsides, near shops and residential buildings.

“Today I walked with the children around the territory behind the seed factory, where everything is strewn with them. There's a place where they're piled up. You can see someone was picking them up and throwing them out. The smell is terrible, everything is gone. Children ask what happened to the birds and why there are so many of them, and I don’t know what to say.

A resident of the village Natalia supplemented.

To be honest, at first I did not pay much attention, the interlocutor began. I went to the factory yesterday and there were a lot of them. It's a forest area, there are no janitors, nobody cleans. My son said there's a whole bunch of dumped birds behind the factory. The smell is terrible.

According to the interlocutor, the dead pigeons are found not only near the enterprise.

There are dead birds everywhere in the village. It didn't happen in a day. They appear gradually. They are periodically cleaned by the owners of the houses near which they die.

The villagers are trying to understand what is happening. One of the versions discussed is related to an enterprise located near the village.

Near the plant, which produces sunflower oil, there are seeds everywhere, continues Natalia. - Birds must come and eat them. So people assume that pigeons can be poisoned with something. But that's just a guess, like I really don't know. Last year, it wasn't like birds were dying so massively and lying around the village.

Another local resident, Igor, claims that they began to notice dead birds in Voznesenka a few months ago.

“About two or three months ago, we started to have dead pigeons,” he said. - They were lying around. On my plot lay on the roof, and just in the grass. There were even half-hearted dogs running after them. I asked my neighbors and found out that many of them had experienced the same thing.

According to Igor, some residents allegedly saw the place where the dead birds were dumped together.

But the pigeons weren't just weird.

I've been seeing dead mice lately on the road I'm walking down. A few days ago I saw a dead rat near my garage. It's not pleasant enough. And the question is, what's going on?

Igor also mentions a factory located opposite his house.

- Every day there are trucks with seeds, there are hangars. It is clear that pigeons are attracted to seeds. But I emphasize specifically: these are just arguments. No one has ever seen anyone spray poison. No proof. It may well be that the plant has nothing to do with it.

According to the interlocutor, he had never seen such a number of dead birds in the village before.

Maybe this has happened before, but this is the first time I've seen it so massively. And most importantly, almost no one removes them. At least I didn't notice the janitors.

In the comments, villagers put forward different versions: from possible poisoning to bird diseases and climatic factors. Some residents are urging to contact specialists who will be able to establish the exact cause of the death of pigeons.

“Maybe they ate something harmful. Specialists will come and sort it out. Don’t touch the birds with your hands, locals warned.

Specialist toxicologist Ivan Solovyov commented on the situation: “The death of birds and rodents can really be one of the signs of a poisonous substance entering the environment. However, without studying the dead animals, it is impossible to establish a connection. Means to control rodents are usually designed for mice and rats, but poisoned bait can be eaten by birds. If the largest number of dead animals is near a certain area, it makes sense to explore not only the carcasses themselves, but also the feed, grain, water and soil nearby. Only toxicological analysis can show whether a particular chemical is present.”.