Imperiled Birds: Beak Deformities on the Rise in Northwest
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Something is warping the beaks of thousands of birds in Alaska and the Northwest. A recent US Geological Survey found a shocking number of birds with “avian keratin disorder,” which causes the either the upper beak, lower beak, or both to grow abnormally long and curved, often crossing the other beak. “The prevalence of these strange deformities is more than 10 times what is normally expected in a wild bird population,” one researcher told the AP.
The disorder, which can also cause elongated claws, can be caused by environmental contaminants, nutritional deficiencies, and various infections. Affected birds have difficulty feeding, though some appear to cope by eating from human-provided bird-feeders. The study focused on northwestern crows, but the deformities are also common in black-capped chickadees and have been seen in several other species as well, including nuthatches and woodpeckers. Biologists have documented more than 2,100 affected individuals.
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I hadn’t seen this post until now. This is heartbreaking. You would think we’d learned our lesson after dioxin.
That is really sad! I can honestly say I believe that the chemicals we are polluting the environment with is causing this. It probably happens over time with the predators eating prey that themselves have been poisoned, so it travels up the food chain.
so it travels up the food chain. Wonder when the mutations will start in humans. Perhaps they already have.