Bird population grows rapidly after reservoir expansion
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Coral Harbour (Jan 31/01) - The community of Coral Harbour is concerned over the impact a growing raven population may be having on the hamlet's water supply.
Hamlet senior administrative officer Imelda Angootealuk says ravens were never very plentiful in Coral Harbour until this past year.
In fact, ravens were rarely ever spotted in Coral until a few of them started coming around the hamlet about four years ago.
Angootealuk says their numbers remained relatively low until shortly after blasting took place last year to extend the town's water reservoir.
After that, the raven population began to steadily rise to where about 100 of them are believed to make their homes at the reservoir site.
"From what we're told, the environmental health officer and the Department of Community Government and Transportation's Shawn Maley and Don Forsyth are coming here either on the weekend of Feb. 5 or Feb. 12 to assess the situation," says Angootealuk.
"There's too many ravens and they're producing their waste too near our water reservoir."
The hamlet has killed one raven near the reservoir in hopes of scaring the other birds off, but the move has had little or no effect.
Angootealuk says the ravens are there every night and come out like clockwork every morning.
"They sort of burrow into the rock and the water reservoir seems to have become more like a habitat for them.
"Our hamlet is flat, but the area around the water reservoir is cliff-like and that's the type of terrain they seem to prefer.
"Their numbers still seem to be growing and the community is concerned if we don't do something about it now, it's going to become a much bigger problem for us in the near future."
