At around 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 3, residents in the Tobin Court and Evans Dr area in the north end of the city, reported the sudden death of 12 Mallard ducks. Earlier a group of 14 ducks was observed walking up Tobin from a local pond just south of that location, munching on grass. They did not display any distress at the time. Moments later 12 of these ducks lay dead on residents’ lawns and driveways.The police were called as well as the MNR, Humane Society and the City of Peterborough. Public works attended the scene to remove the bodies. In the meantime 2 ducks which had been immobilized and stunned by the unknown contaminant were transferred to Shades of Hope Wildlife Rescue in Pefferlaw. Residents in the area are concerned about what could possibly have caused a quick death to so many ducks. According to one of the residents, the Peterborough Police will notify the MNR to investigate the sudden deaths.
Barb Evett (705-741-5396)
N.B. The necropsy results were released by MNR on December 16, 2017. They ruled out poisoning. They did extensive testing for botulism, which is a reason that the results took so long. The results for botulism were negative, as well. However, they did indicate that botulism is extremely tough to test for and can result in false negative test results. So, it looks like we will never know what exactly happened but, if anything the neighbours can be assured that it was not as a result of poisoning.
Mallard deaths – Ptbo – Sept. 3, 2017 – Barb Evett
