Fish and Game: Rodent poison killed snow geese

At least some of the 2,200 snow geese that died in March in the Mud Lake and Market Lake wildlife management areas were killed by poison intended for rodents, Idaho Fish and Game said Friday.

The department said biologists had suspected avian cholera because outbreaks of that disease are common among snow geese during spring migrations, and at least one bird showed symptoms consistent with cholera.

Twenty-four randomly selected birds were tested at the Idaho Fish and Game Wildlife Health Lab. Results were inconclusive for avian flu, but some of the tested birds died from zinc phosphide poisoning. Zinc phosphide is used to control voles and other rodents that damage crops, officials said.

Fish and Game said some of the geese might have died of avian cholera, but it’s not known how many.

“It is important to stress that while unfortunate, the die-off will not affect overall snow goose populations, which number in the millions,” the department said.