A tourist this week found several dead and dying birds at Spittal Pond following a chicken culling at the nature reserve.Tara Flanerey, who was visiting the Island from Rapid City, South Dakota, contacted this newspaper after finding dead birds at the park on Monday.“I found a small, dying brown bird and, upon looking around the parking lot, I saw at least four more dead or dying in the immediate vicinity,” she said.Yesterday morning at least two dead birds were found near the parking lot at the eastern end of the reserve — one rooster and one duck — along with several live chickens.A spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation Services said yesterday that efforts to tackle a major infestation of feral chickens at the nature reserve were ongoing and that the methods used were designed to minimise the impact on other species.“Acting on instructions from the National Parks Commission, and in conjunction with a separate request from both a neighbour and a diary farm, the Department of Conservation Services removed 22 feral chickens from Spittal Pond’s eastern car park yesterday and four from the western car park, as part of its ongoing effort to control a major infestation of feral pest birds within the Nature Reserve.“The Department estimates that there is still at least another 80-plus chickens running wild in the reserve.“Over the last year over 367 feral chickens have been removed from the Reserve — which is a substantial portion of the 11,500 culled from across the island since the programme started in 2012.”Andrew Dobson, of the Bermuda Audubon Society, said the group is fully supportive of the Government’s culling efforts, noting the negative impact of the feral chickens.“Feral chickens are causing a massive economic problem for farmers and private gardens as well an unwanted addition to nature reserves,” he said.Government has received more than 100 requests to cull the animals, which have been deemed a nuisance and a potential carrier of salmonella, but the cullings themselves have sparked repeated complaints due to reports of cats and non-targeted birds being poisoned.In February, the SPCA said a feral cat had been found poisoned near the Grotto Bay resort and a number of wild birds had been found dead in the nearby Blue Hole Park following culling operations.And in August the Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau (BFAB) said another feral cat was found poisoned following a culling at the Cooper’s Island nature reserve.The Government spokeswoman said: “Every effort is made to both minimise impact to non-target species and remove all pests culled. To do this the Department uses an integrated pest management programme custom-designed to the specifics of each site.“To date we have not lost a single cat to chicken baiting. The Department of Conservation Services also pays the vet bills if there has been even a minute possibility that a cat has been affected as a result of our management.“It is the mandate of the Department of Conservation Services to protect and recover Bermuda’s most threatened species. Invasive species either predate on these species or fill the same ecological niches effectively crowding them out and giving them no room to grow. This goes for animals as well as plants, eg, the Bermuda Palmetto versus the invasive Chinese Fan Palm or Crow versus Longtail. The management of both are integrally linked.”A Conservation Services spokeswoman previously said that a bird-specific sedative bait, alpha-chloralose, is used for the cullings rather than a poison, and that every effort is made to prevent animals other than chickens being affected.“The Department of Conservation Services has very strict protocols regarding the use of sedative bait and every possible precaution is taken to ensure there is minimal accidental ingestion by non-target animals,” she said.