13 rare birds killed by poison

Thirteen oriental white storks died from pesticide poisoning in North China’s Tianjin on Tuesday, but another 13 poisoned white storks have recovered well, an expert involved in the rescue said.
“The official laboratory report will be released by the municipal government in a week, but based on what we found during the rescue, it’s probably the pesticide containing organophosphates, which can attack the nervous system, that killed the 13 white storks,” said Rong Wancheng, director of the Agricultural Service Center in Dagang, Tianjin, which cooperated with a local breeding center to treat the injured birds.

Oriental white storks are listed as rare birds under first-grade State protection in China. There are only 2,500 of the species in the world, according to research by Bird Life International, a conservation group headquartered in Cambridge, UK.

The birds rest in Tianjin and Hebei province during their long flight south for the winter. In Tianjin, the Beidagang Natural Reserve is the major habitat for them.

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