CALHOUN COUNTY (WKZO-AM) — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says a close examination of the hundreds of crows found dead along the Amtrak tracks near Springfield has given them some answers, but questions remain.
Sara Thompson, a wildlife biologist with the DNR, said the mass kill is similar, but larger than the mass kill that occurred a few hundred yards down the tracks last month. The birds died from trauma, meaning they were hit by a train that, under normal circumstances, they would have heard coming and easily avoided.
She said more tests have been ordered to determine if there is some reason they were debilitated and unable to get out of the way.
Maybe it was a pesticide or a chemical spill along the tracks that caused the problem, Thompson said.
She said the fact that its happened twice in the same general location suggests there may be something at that location to worry about.
