Hundreds of swallows, flycatchers and warblers were found dead in September in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Nebraska. Research indicates that 80% of the thousands of songbirds that died suddenly showed typical signs of emaciation.
In September, hundreds of swallows, flycatchers, and warblers were found dead in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and Nebraska in the Southwestern United States. Once news of the deaths of these migratory bird species was out, several ornithologists assured that this environmental tragedy, as they cataloged it, was due to the climate crisis. Now, three months later, autopsies show that about 80% of deaths were caused by waste, a syndrome that causes accelerated loss of muscle mass. (Read: Mass Migratory Bird Deaths Recorded in the United States)
As reported by the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, which was responsible for performing the autopsy, the muscles that control the birds’ wings had shrunk severely, in addition, they found blood in the intestinal tract, kidney failure, and general loss of body fat.
Jonathan Sleeman, director of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, told The Guardian that “the direct cause of death in these birds appears to be wasting due to starvation. It is very difficult to attribute a direct causality, but given the close correlation of the meteorological event with the death of these birds, we believe that the meteorological event forced these birds to migrate before they were ready or perhaps their access to food resources. during their migration. ”Sleeman was in charge of conducting autopsies on 40 of the 170 bodies of migratory birds he received. (Read: Why are elephants dying in Africa en masse? Scientists are studying the causes)
For Martha Desmond, a professor in the department of biology at New Mexico State University (NMSU), this case is not about short-term famine. “They became so emaciated that they really had to commit to losing their most important flying muscles. This means that this has not happened overnight. Desmond clarified that when the birds started the migration process, they did so in poor conditions due to the mega drought that was occurring in the southwest of the country at the time.
“Here in New Mexico we have seen a very dry year and it is predicted that we will have more of those dry years. And in turn, I would say that climate change seems to play a role in this, and that we can expect more of this in the future, ”adds Desmond. This year, for the researcher, during their migration route, the birds were forced to divert their migration away from coastal areas rich in resources and move across the Chihuahuan Desert, where food and water are scarce.
While neither of the two experts attributed the death of the specimens to the climatic variability, they emphatically explained that this affected the change in the planet’s temperature, which is reflected in the intense rains and extreme droughts.
Of the bodies collected between August and September, months in which the mass death of this species was recorded, only 80% could be analyzed, as the remaining 20% were not in a sufficient state to perform the correct tests. (Kon Read: The Gray Dolphin Is Classified As An Endangered Species)