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Just as the American bad eagle population has soared in recent years, new research has found the population is facing a new setback: lead poisoning.
New research published in Science found that almost half of bald and golden eagles in the U.S. have lead poisoning, with eagles surveyed across 38 states over a period of eight years. Tissue from 1,210 bald and golden eagles were collected and the results showed chronic lead poisoning in 46 percent of bald and 47 percent of golden eagles.
Scientists also found signs of more immediate lead exposure in 27 percent to 33 percent of bald eagles and 7 to 35 percent of golden eagles, with the proportion dependent on the type of tissue collected.
It's not just bald eagles. Take a look at the extremely rare California Condor which was saved from extinction by a very thin hair. They are still dying from lead poisoning with just several hundred surviving in the wild.
A lot of that lead poisoning isn't a result of careless hunting, it resulted from legal lead shotgun shot and legal lead fishing weights. Thousands if not millions of pounds of spent lead shot has been deposited in our lakes, marshes, and rivers where waterfowl eventually ingest it. Lead is a very persistent contaminant. Why do you think lead shot was eventually banned? Too many anglers use line and tackle way too light for the fish they're targeting, the hooked fish fights its way loose and eventually dies where an eagle can scavenge it. Bald eagles are scavengers. They consume a lot of crippled/dead waterfowl and fish...if their prey is peppered with or attached to something lead, the eagle ingests it. Not to mention that all that discarded monofilament ends up killing or maiming wildlife that gets tangled in it. I remember reading that one reason the bald eagle population in the SW states hadn't reached its recovery goals was because of the high mortality of nestlings dying from injuries inflicted by fishing monofilament tangled with prey brought back by their parents.
I read this today and agree it's very sad and inexcusable. The bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list in 2007 and their already being negatively affected, by humans again. Previously, it was DDT.
And it's poisoning numerous raptor birds, not just the bald eagles so I do believe the government needs to get involved and ban lead permanently from bullets, fishing bait and anything else these birds could ingest.
I read this today and agree it's very sad and inexcusable. The bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list in 2007 and their already being negatively affected, by humans again. Previously, it was DDT.
And it's poisoning numerous raptor birds, not just the bald eagles so I do believe the government needs to get involved and ban lead permanently from bullets, fishing bait and anything else these birds could ingest.
The "government" has been involved since 1918 with the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act though dangers from discarded lead wasn't the driving issue at the time. Eagles are protected by multiple laws and some of those laws extend to other raptors. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 happened to be one of them. Removing them from the ESA list didn't really change their level of protection, just some of the legal recourse and funding avenues. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is still in effect. It pre-dates passage of the ESA by 33 years.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-19-2022 at 04:46 PM..
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Thanks, that wouldn't surprise me either. In either case, it's because of a lot of careless people.
How was using legal ammunition and complying with current regulation careless? A waterfowl hunter can't exactly go gather up every spent shot gun pellet discharged by a legal firearm!
Don't misunderstand me...I am not saying the lead poisoning problem wasn't due in part by carelessness. It was. Unfortunately, the dangers of spent lead shot simply weren't recognized for many many years. It takes decades for lead to build up on the bottoms of lakes, marshes and rivers to the point effects start showing up in high trophic level species. And it is very persistent in the environment. Once the problem did come to light, lead was phased out and steel became the legal option. As for fishing, more states are banning lead sinkers over certain sizes as well. That's "government" involvement too.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-19-2022 at 05:25 PM..
I'm always skeptical of bleedingheart journalism and enivronmental studies they report...Is it possible that a full one half of all raptors have signs of Pb poisoning---birds that rarely, if ever eat carion? ...Are they telling us that so many rodents or fish (the ussual prey of raptors) are carrying around bullets that didn't kill them, or that raptors are gobbling up stray shot from the ground?
I find it hard to believe. ...The published paper is pay walled, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj3068 so we can't see how they defined "Pb poisoning" or determined its health effect on the birds...You can bet they didn't investigate non-organic/non human sources of Pb in the environment.
All the popular press reports relaying the study to us mention the effects of DDT on the raptors-- something not borne out by the science--- DDT was taken out of use simultaneously with restriction of hunting....If the DDT had been the reason for falling populations, it would have taken several generations for the eagles to recover....But, in fact, the recovery was almost immediate. Serious students of population math don't consider the DDT poisoning to have been very important and was only supported by limited experience with captive birds.
I'm always skeptical of bleedingheart journalism and enivronmental studies they report...Is it possible that a full one half of all raptors have signs of Pb poisoning---birds that rarely, if ever eat carion? ...Are they telling us that so many rodents or fish (the ussual prey of raptors) are carrying around bullets that didn't kill them, or that raptors are gobbling up stray shot from the ground?
Raptors may not "gobble up" stray shot, but their prey can and does ingest it. I've done a lot of collection of game bird organs and/or eggs for lead analysis. Its there. The raptor ingesting prey over years is getting it secondhand. Of course, science marches on. The ability to detect environmental lead, its origin, and the deleterious effects on wildlife is probably a lot more sophisticated than it was back when the problem was first hypothesized.
I am sure the lefties would want to ban the lead shot and replace it with tofu.
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In either case, it's because of a lot of careless people. 
The hate hunters, I get it
