Stubborn residual rodenticide levels in barn owls still on the increase.
Well what can I say, the title of this piece pretty much says it all.
Okay so here’s what we know, the last survey conducted of barn owls was in 2020, and yes I know that this seems like a long time ago – lets face it we’ve had a global pandemic since then, but CRRU (The Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use) have released the data showing that out of the 100 dead barn owls collected and tested for rodenticide poisoning 88% had traces of anticoagulant. This figure is up from 87% in the previous tests.
Now a silver lining, kind of, well not really is that only 2 of the one hundred birds actually showed levels high enough to contribute to death, the other 98 were thought to have passed due to malnutrition and/ or vehicular impact.
So here’s the rub, 100 birds were still found dead and although not all were rodenticide poisoning as stated above, a very high number had traces of it.
Lets park the malnutrition thing for a second and talk about the vehicular impacts.
We have all seen and/or heard of a rodent when its had a dose of poison, they become very slow and disorientated, Seemingly not able to compute what is really going on around then and many then fall prey to something bigger that themselves.
Stick a pair of wings on them and make the predator in this case a car or lorry and we might’ve just found our answer as to why the barn owls are being hit by traffic so much?
No lets hop back to the malnutrition issue… Barn Owls eat mice, if people kill all of the mice with poison a large number of that part of the food chain now dies perhaps in its burrows or nest, now the chain is broken. Could this also be a reason for the untimely deaths of our feathered friends?
My point? I always have one, I just dance around it a little first, is to show that just because there ware only 2 confirmed deaths due to rodenticide poisoning you must take a step back and look at the wider picture.
The solution? I always have on of those too haha
As i’ve banged on about before, tighter restrictions on rodenticide for professional users and a complete ban on it for the untrained.
I am very happy to report that the government has finally started the process to ban glue boards for domestic purchase and I keep everything crossed that they eventually get the message with rodenticides.
Okay, no more ramblings of a Rat man for now.
Have a great week, and as always Contact us if you need any help with Pest Control
DJ
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