Veterinary rescuers in Chile have a suspicion how a group of Andean Condors was poisoned with insecticide, causing the deaths of at least 2 of the giant birds.

Condors have a 3-meter wingspan and soar over the Andean peaks looking for carrion to feed on.  But over the weekend, some of them were seen crashing into rocks.  Volunteers fanned over a mountainous area near Los Andes in Valparaiso and found 20 “intoxicated” birds, one of them rescued in a pond, swimming like a duck because it was too sick to fly away.

“The hypothesis is that they suffered organophosphate poisoning after they were exposed to insecticides used for agriculture,” said veterinarian Eric Savard, who has been treating the 18 survivors with antidote, antibiotics, and saline solution.

2 dead foxes were found in the same area with the same foaming at the mouth the condors had suffered.  There’s some speculation that the animals ate meat that was poisoned and left out in the open for wild dogs, after the first human rabies case caused by a dog bite on the region in 17 years.