MYSTERY surrounds the sudden death of more than 40 wild guinea-fowl found in the backyard of a Fernglen home in Port Elizabeth.

While tests to confirm the cause of their deaths are being carried out, both Sandula Conservation environmentalist Mark Marshall and veterinarian Dean Simms suspect the birds may have been poisoned.

Marshall said Jean Claasen, of Fernglen, had called last week after finding several dead guinea-fowl in her garden.

“When we arrived at her house we went around collecting the dead ones, while others continued to die.”

He said Claasen had said the guinea-fowl had all been roosting in a big tree in her backyard before they died.

Marshall said about 40 dead birds had been scattered on the ground. He had picked one up, opened its mouth and pushed food out of its crop into his hand and discovered the birds had been eating bread.

He immediately suspected they had been poisoned.

“I know a method of poisoning birds is soaking slices of bread in poison and then feeding the bread to the birds – they would die like flies.”

He said when he was working for the municipality’s nature conservation department four years ago he had dealt with a case in Fernglen where residents complained about the noise caused by guinea- owl at night and the mess they created in the gardens.

“Because guinea-fowl trust people, they accept food from anyone, so it is easy for them to be poisoned.”

They had taken the dead birds to an animal clinic to determine the cause of death.

Marshall said the birds’ natural habitat was in the Baakens Valley and bush sleepers hunted them for supper, but they would never kill them all at the same time.

“Only people who hate the guinea-fowl because they keep them awake at night would want them dead.”

Claasen said the birds had been sleeping in the big tree behind her yard at night and neighbours had complained a lot about the noise.

“I think someone has poisoned them since there was no other way of keeping them away from our yards.” She said she was not bothered by their presence.

Simms said the birds brought to his clinic had looked healthy and he suspected they had been poisoned. Bread found in them had been sent for testing.