A survey of more than 1,000 bald and golden eagles highlights a drastic increase in poisoning linked to lead-based ammunition.
“For quite some time we have known that lead poisoning was affecting these species, especially as we have seen case numbers increase in rehabilitation settings,” Megan Judkins, the aviary director at the, an eagle rehabilitation facility in Perkins, Oklahoma run and operated by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, said in an email. “But research like this allows us to see this for what it is, more than just a localized problem.
The researchers sampled a variety of tissues, including blood, bones, liver, and feathers. While lead can linger in the blood or liver for weeks to months, it accumulates in bone throughout an animal’s lifetime. The researchers also detected higher rates of chronic lead poisoning in bald eagles from central states than those closer to the coasts, although the reasons for this pattern aren’t yet clear, Slabe says.© Estelle Shuttleworth
He and his colleagues found that 4.9 percent of dead golden eagles and 25.8 percent of dead bald eagles had lead concentrations in their livers high enough to indicate severe poisoning. Based on these numbers, the team calculated that deadly lead poisoning may be reducing annual population growth rates by 3.8 percent in bald eagles and 0.8 percent in golden eagles.
Copper bullet vs lead core bullet before and after impact, showing extensive post-impact fragmentation of the lead, but not the copper, ammunition. Both rounds are 180 grain and fired out of a .300 Winchester magnum.The team is now investigating whether fewer eagles die after hunters switch to using non-lead ammunition.
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