Natalie Powell, Sophomore
Thousands of cranes are dying from a bird flu. Why are these birds dying, and what can people do to help the cranes?
Over 5,000 cranes have died of bird flu. Israeli media said children who had visited the reserve may have touched a sick crane, which contributed to the spread of the flu.
What is the bird flu? The bird flu is a very fatal flu for birds, which can also infect cats, dogs as well as humans, though it rarely causes serious illness in people. This disease is directly transmitted to humans through contact with infected birds. Though this disease mainly affects birds, cats, dogs and humans, it is killing a bunch of cranes. What humans can do to help stop the spread of the bird flu is avoid bird markets and avoid close contact with any animal that looks sick, or just stay away to keep people and animals protected. This is especially the cranes since they are being the most affected.
For the cranes to be safe, they fly to other locations so they don’t get infected, which is also causing them to leave their babies, and the infected ones to die. This is really affecting the Cranes population. The first signs of the outbreak started 2 months ago, says the Ministry of Environmental Protection. At the moment there are about 30,000 cranes that are still alive, but infected. Staff from the Ministry of Environmental Protection are doing their best to save these birds. If this disease keeps going around, it will possibly make cranes go extinct.
It is very important to be on top of our wildlife because of this bird flu. Right now, there are only about 30,000 cranes still alive, which is a big number but not for these birds. Officials have warned others of the danger of the transmission of avian flu from animals to humans. This virus has also been known to spread from Moshav Margaliot on the Lebanese border. 244,000 laying hens were housed in 60 coops, which was causing them to get sick and spread it to other animals. The chickens are healthy but sadly they spread it to the cranes and they are getting very sick. Humans need to start taking care of animals so that they are healthy and kept safe so that things like this do not happen.
Keeping track of these birds is so important, because a bunch of animals are starting to lose their population. The way they track the cranes is through radio-tracking transmitters to keep count of all of the birds.
What humans can do to help the cranes is by avoiding contact with them because the bird flu starts when birds and humans meet together and get each other sick. People need to make sure to stay away because the cranes are being affected the most.
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