US eagles poisoned by by gut piles

[Whitefront]

"The researchers also found elevated levels of lead exposure in fall and winter, coinciding with hunting season in many states.

"During these months, eagles scavenge on carcasses and gut piles left by hunters, which are often riddled with shards of lead shot or bullet fragments.

"Slabe said the upshot of the research was not to disparage hunters. “Hunters are one of the best conservation groups in this country,” he said, noting that fees and taxes paid by hunters help fund state wildlife agencies, and that he also hunted deer and elk in Montana.

"However, Slabe said he hopes the findings provide an opportunity to “talk to hunters about this issue in a clear manner” and that more hunters will voluntarily switch to non-lead ammunition such as copper bullets."

Full article: Nearly half of bald eagles tested across US show signs of chronic lead exposure

 

[paul o']

Glad there not part of the EU ! but I bet a few pens are burning trying to get that in EU/UK law as I type ?

 

[sauer]

Was a podcast on this with regard to condors and one of lead scientists himself a hunter ….
Interesting how they scanned carcasses that head shot etc and still found lead “dust” contaminating the carcass
They gave hunters free non lead ammo to encourage em to move other and overall take up was good … and resulted in less condor casualties …
Sure podcast was with Roy Lupton hosting …

Paul

 

[Mike_E]

on a quick read that appears to be a very large and long running study with a big sample size. If ~50% of iconic birds of prey are getting poisened by lead from gut piles/carcasses then that is a shocking statistic and something that needs to be fixed. If that means moving to lead free ammo then so be it. Hard to justify collateral damage of dead birds of prey just because hunters are too entrenched to change.

I moved to lead free as it was a requirement of a lease, not by my own choice but to be honest its been fine. Not lost a beast yet out of ~40 shot in the last 18 months. Would not choose to go back to lead to be honest.

 

[andychas]

It’ll be interesting to see what comes of the investigations into the recent sea eagle deaths in here Dorset/Sussex. There’s a thread over in off topic where this is raised

Sea Eagles.

With so much talk of birds of prey in general, I wonder how these [and the people affected by them] already there appears to be conflicting ideas of their habits. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-49433490...

www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk

with links to some interesting research into Finnish Sea Eagles and some research (funded by the NRA I think?) which suggests that condors may have been taking carrion(cattle carcasses) that was contaminated with non metallic lead from other sources (paint/lead batteries)

what I can’t see from this research is whether (non metallic) lead from paint etc is identified as a possible source alongside metallic lead from bullet fragments. It seems a plausible, additional source, though equally plausible that it’s coming from gut piles/carrion/prairie dog carcasses as highlighted here. As said above, this does seem to be a pretty comprehensive study.

 

[enfieldspares]

No mention though of the number of such birds killed by collision with wind turbine blades however?

 

[Alantoo]

No mention though of the number of such birds killed by collision with wind turbine blades however?

Which study were you referring to?

This is the paper I have just read having followed the links in the post previous to yours...Wind turbines accounted for 2 birds (1.6%), Electric power lines for 19 (15%) lead poisoning accounted for 38 (31%) but the last paragraph I have quoted indicates there may be a wider problem with them.

Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles - PMC

The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) suffered a severe population decline due to environmental pollutants in the Baltic Sea area ca. 50 years ago but has since been recovering. The main threats for the white-tailed eagle in Finland are now ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Abstract...The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) suffered a severe population decline due to environmental pollutants in the Baltic Sea area ca. 50 years ago but has since been recovering. The main threats for the white-tailed eagle in Finland are now often related to human activities. We examined the human impact on the white-tailed eagle by determining mortality factors of 123 carcasses collected during 2000–2014. Routine necropsy with chemical analyses for lead and mercury were done on all carcasses. We found human-related factors accounting for 60% of the causes of death. The most important of these was lead poisoning (31% of all cases) followed by human-related accidents (e.g. electric power lines and traffic) (24%). The temporal and regional patterns of occurrence of lead poisonings suggested spent lead ammunition as the source. Lead shot was found in the gizzards of some lead-poisoned birds. Scavenging behaviour exposes the white-tailed eagle to lead from spent ammunition.

Paragraphs mentioning Wind Turbines from the body of the paper...

Lead poisoning was diagnosed when chemical analysis of liver (and kidney) revealed toxic lead concentration, and typical pathology (e.g. enlarged gall bladder filled with viscous dark green bile) was found. A liver concentration of lead > 5 mg/kg was deemed to be poisoning (Franson 1996) even when the carcass was too decomposed for complete necropsy. As for traumatic cases, background information was taken into account when determining the cause of death. For example, carcass found under an electric power line with signs of trauma was classified as power line collision.

For further analyses, the cases were divided in two main categories: human-related and other, “natural” diagnoses. The human-related diagnoses were further classified in three categories: (1) lead poisoning (2) trauma (collisions into cars, trains, wind turbines or electric power lines; getting entangled in nets or fences) and (3) shooting injuries. Natural diagnoses were divided in two categories: (1) trauma (territorial fights, drowning, unspecific trauma) and (2) disease or starvation.

Summary of the main diagnoses

Diagnosis group​	Young​	Adult​	All​
1. Human related​	30 (75%)​	44 (53%)​	74 (60%)​
1.1 Lead poisoning​	17 (43%)​	21 (25%)​	38 (31%)​
1.2 Trauma​	12 (30%)​	18 (22%)​	30 (24%)​
1.2.1 Electric power line​	7 (18%)​	12 (14%)​	19 (15%)​
1.2.2 Traffic​	3 (7.5%)​	2 (2.4%)​	5 (4.1%)​
1.2.3 Wind turbine​	1 (2.5%)​	1 (1.2%)​	2 (1.6%)​
1.2.4 Entangled (net/fence)​	1 (2.5%)​	3 (3.6%)​	4 (3.3%)​
1.3 Shooting​	1 (2.5%)​	5 (6.0%)​	6 (4.9%)​
2. Natural and other​	10 (25%)​	39 (47%)​	49 (40%)​
2.1 Trauma​	4 (10%)​	28 (34%)​	32 (26%)​
2.1.1 Territorial fight​	0​	11 (13%)​	11 (8.9%)​
2.1.2 Drowning​	2 (5.0%)​	5 (6.0%)​	7 (5.7%)​
2.1.3 Other trauma​	2 (5.0%)​	12 (14%)​	14 (11%)​
2.2 Disease/starvation​	6 (15%)​	10 (12%)​	16 (13%)​
2.3 Unknown​	0​	1 (1.2%)​	1 (0.8%)​
N​	40 (100%)​	83 (100%)​	123 (100%)​

With the active construction of wind turbines along coastal regions overlapping white-tailed eagle habitat, the risk of these large birds hitting turbines should be increasing. However, collisions with wind turbines were rare, only two cases were found. Traffic accidents and, also, getting trapped in nets or fences were more common findings than wind turbine collisions. However, not all wind turbine collisions are submitted to pathological examination and WTE experts have knowledge of at least 10 such collisions in Finland in 2000s (T. Stjernberg, pers. comm.). WTE mortality and decreased breeding success due to wind turbines in important WTE habitat has been recorded in Norway (Dahl et al. 2012). Increasing knowledge about risks associated with wind farms encouraged the Finnish WTE working group and WWF Finland to compile guidelines for eagle-safe wind farm construction (Nuuja 2017). Telemetry study of dispersing juveniles showed that risks can be reduced by avoiding construction of wind turbines along the coastline and with a 2 km buffer zone between WTE nests and turbines (Balotari-Chiebao et al. 2016).

 

[NickJ]

I must admit that seeing Golden Eagles descend on grallochs on the hill here was one reason that helped make up my mind to switch to non-lead ammo.

Having said that, any bird of prey found dead in the UK is, of course usually x-rayed by the RSPB (ostensibly for lead shot) but any ingested lead bullet fragments would, I assume show up and I don't remember any cases quoted here.

 

[enfieldspares]

Yes. Lead is a poison and on the hills the days of "leaving it in the midden" should be long gone if using lead bullets. It is just adding another tick to the reasons to ban lead box bullets list.

 

[Apthorpe]

on a quick read that appears to be a very large and long running study with a big sample size. If ~50% of iconic birds of prey are getting poisened by lead from gut piles/carcasses then that is a shocking statistic and something that needs to be fixed. If that means moving to lead free ammo then so be it. Hard to justify collateral damage of dead birds of prey just because hunters are too entrenched to change.

It's a very big "If". If one wants to read articles making claims about science in a scientific manner, then one has to examine critically not just the headline, but the circumstances surrounding the study, the methods used, the authors and the conclusions reached - all in the light of other extant knowledge. None of that adds up to being a "denier of the science", in fact not doing so is in itself cause for criticism.
I did not come away with the conclusion that about 50% of these birds of prey are getting poisoned by lead from gut piles etc. That is precisely the conclusion the biased writers of the article want you to take away.

So I looked into it further. National Geographic has a better article than the Guardian (which is pathetic) on this. Of the live birds tested, 28% of bald eagles and 9% of golden eagles had levels indicating acute lead poisoning - a level with the potential to kill them, and most had above 5micrograms per liter of blood (the WHO human health level of concern, not poisoning). This burden on lead contamination has the effect of reducing the population growth rate for bald eagles from 19% per year (or 15.4%, the phrasing is unclear) to 15% per year. The effect on golden eagle population growth rate was to reduce it by 1%. The numbers of bald eagles is booming.

I moved to lead free as it was a requirement of a lease, not by my own choice but to be honest its been fine. Not lost a beast yet out of ~40 shot in the last 18 months. Would not choose to go back to lead to be honest.

 

[Heym SR20]

As hunters we are conservationists first and foremost and a closely in touch with nature.

Yes there are plenty of other human activities that cause massive damage to nature - roads, deforestation, urbanisation, wind turbines etc etc.

But stopping putting lead into the environment and poisoning birds of prey and other birds and animals (blue tits, great tits etc all feed on carcasses) is something that is now totally within our gift.

There are plenty of good non toxic options that just work and work well. Yes there is a small additional cost of ammunition, but that is a very small price to pay.

 

[dobber]

I have a question to anyone who believes this is anything close to accurate, a simple fact check

How many of you are gut shooting deer currently?

Now thats answered, how is it possible, for anyone who has shot a deer/moose/elk/critter and then gutted it, how many times were the guts perforated/ripped open by a wayward shot?

 

[Bowland blades]

I have a question to anyone who believes this is anything close to accurate, a simple fact check

How many of you are gut shooting deer currently?

Now thats answered, how is it possible, for anyone who has shot a deer/moose/elk/critter and then gutted it, how many times were the guts perforated/ripped open by a wayward shot?

Thing is lead contamination is far wider than the actual area of the wound itself . Most of us have had a bullet effect areas away from the actual bullet path , breaking through the diagram for instance . It's not just guts, it's heads bits of lung blown out the hole etc etc etc
Time to stop arguing against having to come away from lead, its not worked and carrying on the argument is an own goal so far as the evidence and most importantly public opinion is concerned

 

[Apthorpe]

I have a question to anyone who believes this is anything close to accurate, a simple fact check

How many of you are gut shooting deer currently?

Now thats answered, how is it possible, for anyone who has shot a deer/moose/elk/critter and then gutted it, how many times were the guts perforated/ripped open by a wayward shot?

People leave the heart and lungs out too.

 

[andychas]

I have a question to anyone who believes this is anything close to accurate, a simple fact check

How many of you are gut shooting deer currently?

Now thats answered, how is it possible, for anyone who has shot a deer/moose/elk/critter and then gutted it, how many times were the guts perforated/ripped open by a wayward shot?

i think the terminology of gut pile covers more than just the gralloch, pretty sure it’s common practice for field dressing to mean taking all the cuts off the carcass and packing out along with any trophy, leaving skeletal and intestinal remains (happy to be corrected on this). then you have varmints where the whole carcass (what remains of it) is left. if there are lead bullets that retain 100%of their weight then I’m sure it would be less of an issue, but there is so much evidence available on how much lead fragment goes into surrounding tissue that it’s pretty clear where at least some of the lead to blame in this poisoning comes from.

 

[dobber]

I use non lead in my 30-06, discussed this very article in a US forum i go to, remember the testing was done from 2010 - 2018, there are more eagles now than in recent history, to the point they are a pest. More of these iconic birds of prey get killed by cars than by lead poisoning as they feed on the carcass of road kill.

 

[Ade8mm]

I use non lead in my 30-06, discussed this very article in a US forum i go to, remember the testing was done from 2010 - 2018, there are more eagles now than in recent history, to the point they are a pest. More of these iconic birds of prey get killed by cars than by lead poisoning as they feed on the carcass of road kill.

Nature finds a balance so they say.
Ooh eer, humans are not part of nature - I forgot !

 

[dobber]

Interesting thought as well on the title of the story, reminds me of years ago when mad cow disease was rampant. I won't get the numbers correct so please dont hold me to them, but the testing in different countries went something like this.
UK - 1 in 100 tested
Can - 1 - 1000
US - 1 - 10,000
Wonder what country tested more positive cases? Brings to point how many bald eagles that weren't tested show signs of lead exposure? mute question i know, kind of like the only people who tested positive for the Corona virus are only the ones who did a test and were positive

The severity of change needs to happen, the sensationalism of these types of stories dont need to happen as they aren't always fact based (somewhat biased to the anti hunting group)

Same web page - so 50% lead poisoning, and 80% rat poison

Rat poison found in bodies of 80% of American eagles

Carcasses of 109 bald and golden eagles examined in University of Georgia study, with eagles probably exposed by predatory and scavenging activities

www.theguardian.com

never mind, they are all good

American bald eagles have made 'strong return' from brink of extinction

Species has more than quadrupled since 2009 thanks to the Endangered Species Act, according to a recent report

www.theguardian.com

 

[Apthorpe]

As hunters we are conservationists first and foremost and a closely in touch with nature.

Yes there are plenty of other human activities that cause massive damage to nature - roads, deforestation, urbanisation, wind turbines etc etc.

But stopping putting lead into the environment and poisoning birds of prey and other birds and animals (blue tits, great tits etc all feed on carcasses) is something that is now totally within our gift.

There are plenty of good non toxic options that just work and work well. Yes there is a small additional cost of ammunition, but that is a very small price to pay.

I'd prefer to spend the money on a course of action that will have a positive effect instead.

Populations of birds of prey are booming. The bald eagle's population increased fourfold in a decade while they "were mostly being poisoned by lead". Can't say the same for many of our species which are not being poisoned by lead.

I could fire three rounds of non-lead ammunition or plant one more tree or buy a higher welfare grade of chicken for supper. Which is better and why?

 

[John Gryphon]

No mention though of the number of such birds killed by collision with wind turbine blades however?

Oh no,not atm as 'lead' suits the current form of attack,it involves firearms whereas turbines don`t...the attack as usual is generally from those that like to use faulty ammo (lead free lol) in their war against shooting/hunting/firearms.

They obviously sit down together coming up with another 'lets promote this idea ' all the time.

Any substitute, EG copper will draw the same anti flak down the track if lead ammo is banned.
Open your eyes and see the antis writings on the wall you blokes,read between the lines.

MEANWHILE THE COMMON HOUSE WINDOW KILLS MORE BIRDS THAN ANY EFFN WIND TURBINE WILL.

More of these iconic birds of prey get killed by cars than by lead poisoning as they feed on the carcass of road kill.

YES!

Quote from article. :Laura Hale, board president at non-profit Badger Run Wildlife Rehab in Klamath county, Oregon, said she’ll never forget the first eagle she encountered with acute lead poisoning, in 2018.
“There is something hideous when you watch an eagle struggling to breathe because of lead poisoning – it’s really, really harsh,” she said, her voice shaking. That eagle went into convulsions, and died within 48 hours.:

Well how in the **** did Laura know it was lead that caused the birds death? The death of the bird (if true) seems to me to be more of a chemical poisoning than ingested lead.

I reiterate......Any substitute, EG copper will draw the same anti flak down the track if lead ammo is banned.