Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Eagle Deaths Continue

Mysterious deaths of bald eagles on the DeGray Lake is southwest Arkansas have settled into a deja vu scenario. It's the perplaexing, baffling dilemma of two years ago.

Four bald eagles have been found dead on the lake in the past few days. Two were found Saturday near a traditional eagle roosting site on the south side of the lake. A third was found Monday by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers searchers at another location, and a fourth was discovered Wednesday. The two found Saturday were immature, without the distinctive white heads and tails; the one found Monday was an adult, and the one Wednesday was an immature bird.

Dr. Kim Miller, a wildlife disease specialist with the National Wildlife Health Center at Madison, Wis., has been on the scene at DeGray several days. She said the deaths of the three birds may have occurred about the same time.

Miller and another wildlife disease specialist, Dr. Chris Franson, have studied dead and sick coots brought in by personnel of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Corps of Engineers and DeGray Lake Resort State Park. Some sick coots were put into a pen built by Corps of Engineers personnel at the water's edge of the lake for observation.

Investigators are as baffled as they were two years ago, when 29 bald eagles died in the DeGray area. Exhaustive laboratory tests then failed to turn up any evidence of poisons, bacteria, viruses or toxins. Additional tests on the dead eagles and coots are underway at several laboratories including the National Wildlife Health Center and the Southeastern Cooperative Disease Center in Athens, Ga.

Coots are a duck-like member of the rail family and are the current focus of the investigators because (1) the DeGray eagles are eating coots, (2) coots are present by the thousands on the lake and (3) coots have been found sick and dead on the lake. Coots are vegetation eaters, feeding at DeGray on a water plant called elodea, which growns from underwater ground, not from the water itself.

The DeGray Eagle Task Forace, which includes personnel of the Corps of Engineers, Game and Fish Commisssion, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arkansas State Parks and the Arkadelphia-based Ross Foundation, has conducted daily searches of the lower section of the Alpine Ridge Areas. Elodea isn't present in the upper section, either.

DeGray Eagle Task Force members urge fishermen on DeGray persons on land around the lake to be on the lookout for dead or sick eagles. They should not approach the birds but should carefully note the location and immediately phone the Game and Fish Commission at 1-800-482-9262.