THE sudden death of more than 40 wild guinea fowl in the back yard of a Fernglen, Port Elizabeth, home last month is still shrouded in mystery after tests for pesticides came back negative.

Veterinarian Dean Simms, who initially suspected the birds might have been poisoned, said yesterday: “Tests for pesticides are negative. We suspect other types of poisoning. We are running more tests. The results are not ready at this stage.”

Simms said the birds were tested for pesticides because these were common poisons that were easily accessible.

Last week The Herald published a letter from Harry Elliott, greenkeeper at the Jeffreys Bay Golf Club, regarding six guinea fowl he discovered dead on the course last year.

He said he had at first thought someone had poisoned them. “I was very upset and took two of the dead birds to our local veterinarian who very kindly examined them.

“She told me the poisoning was caused by a worm which they ingest and it had been known that a whole flock had been killed as a result.”

Simms agreed, saying that if guinea fowl ate poisonous caterpillars and worms they died. There was no cure for this. “We will further the investigation to try to identify other types of poison,” he said.

Sunridge Park resident Lauren Liston, who also wrote a letter about the birds to The Herald last week on behalf of residents of May Way, Sunridge Park, said yesterday the neighbourhood was planning a campaign to educate people about Bay wildlife and its advantages.

Animal lover Liston – who is in her second year of a BA in media, culture and communication at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University – said she took 10 of the dead birds to her veterinarian in Walmer after the incident:

“We are still waiting for the results. Once we get them we intend launching the campaign.” She noted in the letter that “over the years our street has become the home of a large family of flourishing helmeted guinea fowl”.

“These beautiful birds have been the source of much delight and amusement to residents and passersby alike.” Guinea fowl, she said, had become synonymous with May Way.

Ed Gutsche, of Edge Financial Group, who has offered a R5000 reward for information on the birds’ death, said: “I am very happy that they were not poisoned. However, I think it could have been something else (that killed them).”

Gutsche said the most important thing in his view was that Arnold Slabbert, of conservation organisation Wildline, was going to re-introduce more guinea fowl into the area.

Slabbert said: “In all my experience with wildlife, I have never had a situation where birds died in large numbers because of anything else other than poisoning.”

It is a criminal offence to poison any kind of bird.