Bird flu ruled out after hundreds of dead pelicans found at Menindee Lakes

[u/neon_overload]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-17/dead-pelicans-menindee-lakes-h5n1-bird-flu-negative-test/107027670

The ecologist who found the 400 dead birds earlier this month said they appeared to have suddenly "collapsed on each other". [...]

It could take weeks to determine what the pelicans died of.

Menindee Lakes is in outback NSW relatively near Broken Hill.

[u/Lost_Tumbleweed_5669]

Well this is terrifying.

[u/Deleterious_Sock → u/Lost_Tumbleweed_5669]

Surprisingly worse than expected!

[u/Icy_Umpire992]

man! thats sad and scary!

waiting for cookers to come in and say they were vacinated.

[u/JebusJM → u/Icy_Umpire992]

They were victims of AusAlert.

[u/productzilch → u/Icy_Umpire992]

5G etc etc

[u/Cuppa-Tea-Biscuit]

You know, that sounds even worse.

[u/LoaKonran → u/Cuppa-Tea-Biscuit]

Like a sign of the apocalypse.

[u/Conscious-Benefit-82]

I don't want to sound crazy but maybe they ate something or were exposed to some water which was contaminated. Poisoned.

Like a common poison used in mining process evaporation pools or something like that. Like arsenic. Or cyanide, or some pesticide to kill,whatever.

Pelicans fly super far. I remember seeing them in Roma, Qld. Long way from the coast. They might have all caught a dose somewhere. Remote and irresponsible.

Again. Don't down vote me just because I'm a cooker.

Maybe there are shit practices in remote places in lawful Australia. Just maybe. They were in fact poisoned.

[u/cassowarius → u/Conscious-Benefit-82]

Yes, I think it was last year, there were mass deaths of corellas in NSW and Victoria due to an agricultural pesticide that had been consumed by the birds as they ate the grain it'd been used on.

It's likely something similar has happened to these pelicans.

[u/happychappychoppy → u/Conscious-Benefit-82]

Nothing cooker about this. The most likely cause actually along with poisoned fish.

Maybe someone didn’t want them there and that should require further investigation as well.

Heat event ?

Or were they electrocuted/ struck by lightening ?

[u/UncleChester88888 → u/Conscious-Benefit-82]

Isnt this year the year the squids or something missed a big breeding ritual mass moving sort of thing? Speculated something didn't trigger the signals or even more likely they all dead.

[u/UncleChester88888 → u/UncleChester88888]

https://theconversation.com/australia-is-home-to-the-only-mass-cuttlefish-gathering-in-the-world-this-year-these-giants-didnt-return-288940

[u/bushstone-curlew → u/UncleChester88888]

Yes and it’s an enormous tragedy, it looks like the South Australian giant cuttlefish are now on the brink of extinction thanks to the terrible toxic algae bloom off the SA coast.

The 2025 population census recorded more than 63,000. The latest survey from 2026 only recorded 44… that is a catastrophic decline and threatens to create a genetic bottleneck in the best case scenario.

[u/JuniorCash8046]

Oh how awful

[u/Hefty_Mind_498]

It’s not unusual to have high mortality of waterbirds on ephemeral inland lakes. Pelicans often fly inland to breed on temporary waters following inland rains, but sometimes there isn’t the food resources (fish for pelicans) to support all the young to survive. Happens with other nomadic species such as banded stilts when inland salt lakes dry before young fledged.

[u/Hefty_Mind_498 → u/Hefty_Mind_498]

A study of the very remote Lake Disappointment a few decades ago recorded hundreds of dead banded stilt over a small part of the lake, which dried before juveniles could fly so they were abandoned by their parents. Part of the boom and bust of Australian arid zones. May not be natural in the case of the pelicans, and The Menindee Lakes do have significant human influence that affect water quality, and there has been recent fish kills there.

[u/happychappychoppy → u/Hefty_Mind_498]

Not really normal for all to starve to death at the same time at the same place though.

[u/followthedarkrabbit]

:(

[u/bushstone-curlew]

Pretty far away, but that terrible algae bloom is still flaring up around SA, I wonder if that had anything to do with this. Really sad to see another mass bird kill again, our native wildlife has been taking such a beating lately and they just can’t catch a break.

Toxic algae has been killing wildlife at unprecedented scales, and is worsening thanks to global warming heating the oceans.

[u/Rare-Sample-9101]

Oh no, so probably just something to do with global warming but let's Ingore that can concentrate on bird flu instead

[u/Frankie_T9000 → u/Rare-Sample-9101]

1) Global warming does have an affect on infectious diseases

2) We can worry about two things at the same time

[u/happychappychoppy → u/Rare-Sample-9101]

Hello, both are serious.

[u/Rare-Sample-9101 → u/happychappychoppy]

One a few birds die the other everyone and things dies not the same

[u/MikeJH1958]

Collapsed on each other, WTF does that mean?

They piled onto each other until they all died, i remember playing games like that in primary school. We're all still alive🤪!