Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Dead Bald Eagle Found Again

JOE MOSBY

ARKANSAS GAME & FISH COMMISSION

A bald eagle found dead in December at Lake Ouachita was killed by the same mysterious malady that has claimed 60 other eagles in recent years, a researcher said.

Dr. Kimberli Miller of the National Wildlife Health Center at Madison, Wisc., said examinations at the center showed the adult male eagle died of Avian Vacuolar Myelinopathy (AVM). This is the name given the still unidentified disease formerly called Coot and Eagle Brain Lesion Syndrome.

The bird was found Dec. 7. Another dead eagle was found at Ouachita on Dec. 29 and it has been sent to the Wisconsin laboratory for examination.

Since the first dead eagle was found Thanksgiving Day 1994 at DeGray Lake, about 25 miles from Lake Ouachita, intensive investigations and research efforts have failed to find a cause of the birds' dying. In Arkansas, the mystery disease, AVM, has been found only in eagles and coots. Eagles, coots and one mallard duck were found dead from AVM in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

In Arkansas, the largest numbers of eagles died from AVM in the winter of 1994-95 and 1996-97. All deaths in the first episode were at DeGray. In the second outbreak, dead eagles were found at DeGray, Ouachita and nearby Lake Hamilton. One eagle was found dead at Ouachita in the winter of 1995-96, but AVM was not confirmed. A few eagles died in 1997-98, and none was found dead from AVM in 1998-99.

Coots are small duck-like members of the rail family, and bald eagles sometimes feed on them at Arkansas lakes. Coots with AVM have also been found in the other three southeastern states.

Scientists are again gathering information and making observations of bird activities and environmental matters at DeGray. Hundreds of coots and several eagles have been trapped, banded and released at DeGray the past two winters.

Tests in several laboratories have found no evidence of poisons or known wildlife diseases in either the eagles or the coots.

Anyone in Arkansas who sees a coot with a colored neck band should report the exact location and other details to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission at 1-800-482-9262. The neck bands are numbered, and this number can sometimes be read with binoculars in the field.