“Birds are dying by the thousands, it’s carnage”: the marshes of Loire-Atlantique ravaged by botulism

In the middle of the verdant Brière marsh in Loire-Atlantique, between brambles, reeds, and muddy waters, only the birds' feathers still fly. Their owners, on the other hand, are weighted to the ground. Inert. "They're everywhere, it's a bloody massacre," says a volunteer hunter who crisscrosses the area, a black bin in one hand and a white heron carcass in the other. His waders only advance a few meters before hitting a new obstacle. "There, I've got another one. It's a real cemetery," someone shouts to him from the other end of the bank.

Dressed in their camouflage-print khaki pants, a dozen hunters pile up the bodies of egrets, spoonbills , and gulls in just a few minutes. The trips to and from a trailer continue. The bill grows. Loïc Gouin, 61, deplores a "massacre" in what is