Dead Peafowl on Point Dume Remain a Mystery

BY BILL KOENEKER.

Something has taken down the wild peafowls of Point Dume. In the last couple of weeks, Point Dume resident Charlene Kabrin said she has come across more than a half dozen of the colorful birds that were deceased. She estimates there may be only eight or nine left in the wild just as the critical mating season begins.
Kabrin’s latest discovery was a young male, which was taken away for testing by county officials. Despite extensive testing, the experts could still not conclusively determine the cause of death, according to Kabrin.
“It’s neck was not broken [which is] the usual cause of death if it had been attacked by a predator,” Kabrin said. “The bird tested negative for any of the contagious diseases they worry about when birds die.”
She was told the necropsy revealed there was some swelling around the heart. “It could have been something it ate. Nothing showed definitive. There were no obvious signs of poisoning. But there was no testing for specifics,” she added.
“Yes, we did submit a bird for testing,” said Dr. Karen Ehnert, a senior veterinarian for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “There was inflammation around the heart, like heart disease. We don’t know what caused this outbreak. But it does seem to have ended.”
Ehnert said there has been no additional report from other parts of the county about any kind of clustering or unusual deaths of peafowl.
The senior vet confirmed the bird was tested for West Nile Virus. “We are conducting testing for West Nile Virus,” added Ehnert, who added the agency is conducting testing for the virus on any dead birds that are brought to them or they will pick up dead birds that are reported to the county if the specimens are in “good shape.”
Kabrin said the deaths were clustered within a week and no deaths have been reported or discovered since the episode started several weeks ago.
Other cities which have sizable populations of the peafowl were contacted. “To my knowledge, there have not been any [unusual deaths],” said Gary Gyves, the senior administrative analyst and liaisons for animal control for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes where a large population of wild peafowl thrive.