At a world heritage site in Northern Senegal, at least 700,000 pelicans have been found dead.
The death of the pelicans come as a surprise to locals, who said samples have been take to find the cause of their death.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site provides refuge for hundreds of migratory birds.
The birds were found dead at the Djoudj Sanctuary, a location on the nation’s border with Mauritania and a resting spot for migratory birds from the Sahara.
A video showed hundreds of pelican carcasses scattered along water bodies but the originality of the video is yet to be confirmed.
There are hundreds of birds’ species in the sanctuary but only pelicans were found dead. Of the carcasses, 10 were juvenile birds, and 740 were adult birds.
It is yet to be known if the high mortality has a link with Senegal’s H1N1 outbreak, which killed more than 100,000 chickens in the Thies region.
Senegal has since closed the park to tourists and strangers
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