90-Second Read: Stop Demonizing the Birdwatchers Who Contracted Hantavirus

Reports have suggested that the Schilperoords may have caught the Hantavirus in late March after visiting a landfill, and well-known birding hotspot, on the outskirts of Ushuaia, Argentina, where the cruise ship was docked. The virus spread to other passengers on the cruise, and as of mid-May, officials have documented 11 confirmed or suspected cases of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, including three deaths. That sounds more like two passionate birders seeking to check off a rare species on their lifetime list and less like a pair of haphazard birdwatchers to me. He and his wife, Mirjam, passed away last month after contracting the deadly virus as they traveled through South America on a months-long vacation.

As investigators have pieced together this chain of tragic events, some media commentators have taken the opportunity to question the practice of birdwatching in areas that do not evoke images of natural beauty. A 2021 study in PLoS One quantified avian diversity at 19 landfills across the United States, comparing bird species richness at those sites to nearby natural sites. Unfortunately, in the case of the Schilperoords, birding in a remote, Patagonian landfill may have put them in contact with a deadly virus. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game even publishes a map to help birders catch a glimpse of an Iceland gull, a Lesser Black-backed gull, and other annual visitors to the dump site.

This week, Daily Show host Jon Stewart joined the ill-informed chorus. The fact that they're also darn good places to see birds is a bonus. The authors found these measures to be roughly similar between the two different habitats. The Ada County Landfill in southwest Idaho, for example, is well known for its winter gull watching.

And Holden says that an annual tour of an urban wastewater treatment plant managed by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago typically sells out within a day of tickets becoming available. But that's not a reason to vilify them or the longstanding, and largely safe, practice of traveling to such places to observe a bird species one might not see otherwise.