{"id":100477,"date":"2025-12-30T22:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/100477\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T22:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:25:10","slug":"not-as-high-as-we-thought-officials-probe-cause-of-11-bird-deaths-at-orlandos-lake-eola-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/100477\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not as high as we thought:\u2019 Officials probe cause of 11 bird deaths at Orlando\u2019s Lake Eola"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Orlando city officials confirmed Wednesday that 11 birds, including nine swans, an anhinga and an ibis, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2025\/12\/29\/investigation-launched-into-swan-deaths-at-lake-eola-park-in-orlando\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2025\/12\/29\/investigation-launched-into-swan-deaths-at-lake-eola-park-in-orlando\/\">have died at Lake Eola,<\/a> though the cause of death remains unknown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">City Commissioner Patty Sheehan told News 6 that the total number of deceased birds was lower than previously reported. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt was not as high as we thought, which makes me happy. But there\u2019s just been a lot of misinformation swirling around,\u201d Sheehan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The city of Orlando is working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and a local veterinary team to determine what caused the deaths. Officials said it could take several weeks to receive results from necropsies, or animal autopsies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI mean, they had said we\u2019d get it by Friday. Now they\u2019re saying 30 days\u2026 I understand that people want the information now,\u201d Sheehan added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Park visitors said the news is upsetting. John Moore, who recently moved to the area, called the deaths \u201creally sad\u201d and recalled attending a bird roundup at the lake just weeks ago. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI cannot imagine coming to Lake Eola Park and not seeing the swans and all the birds,\u201d another visitor, Andre Alvz, said, <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Some, however, said the deaths are a natural part of life. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s Florida, okay? There are animals everywhere living and dying,\u201d said one man, who declined to give his name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">As a precaution, city crews are sanitizing and cleaning areas around the lake every morning from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sheehan said the city is treating the situation as a worst-case scenario with avian flu to protect the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Officials are urging visitors not to touch wildlife or feed birds until the investigation is complete. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">They also say to take precautions with your pets as well, including avoiding contact with bird excrement, and removing your shoes before entering your home and cleaning them off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">If you see sick or dead birds, <a href=\"https:\/\/survey123.arcgis.com\/share\/f225a0cf2aea4cbab8e34663d32cabc5 https:\/\/myfwc.com\/research\/wildlife\/health\/mystery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/survey123.arcgis.com\/share\/f225a0cf2aea4cbab8e34663d32cabc5 https:\/\/myfwc.com\/research\/wildlife\/health\/mystery\/\">FWC asks that you fill out THIS survey<\/a> on the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Orlando city officials confirmed Wednesday that 11 birds, including nine swans, an anhinga and an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1610,8411,1335,139,141,140,52016],"class_list":{"0":"post-100477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-lake-eola","9":"tag-lake-eola-park","10":"tag-orange-county","11":"tag-orlando","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-swans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}