WSJ - Lead Ammo Study and Eagle, Posted Feb 17, 2022

[Magnum61]

Bald Eagle Population Growth Rate Suppressed by Lead Poisoning, Study Suggests

Scientists flag the risks of toxic ammunition fragments in a new study that found signs of repeated lead exposure in almost half the birds sampled.

www.wsj.com

Nationwide study. Sharing here for the forum to be up to date.

 

[FlyFishStout_CO]

Sharing a few paragraphs I found interesting if others aren’t subscribers…

Across North America, bald eagle population growth rates are being suppressed by 3.8% because of lead exposure, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. Continentwide, golden eagles’ population growth, too, is being stunted by almost 1%.

“A lead fragment the size of a grain of rice is enough to kill an eagle,” said Krysten Schuler, a Cornell University wildlife disease ecologist who wasn’t involved in the new study, adding, “This is an anthropogenic source of mortality for eagles.”

The U.S.’s bald eagle population, which numbers around 316,000 in the Lower 48 states, is growing 10% annually, so the 4% growth rate suppression shown in the new study isn’t as concerning as the trend noted in golden eagle populations, according to Vince Slabe, a research wildlife biologist at Conservation Science Global, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, and co-author of the new study.

The researchers said there are roughly 36,000 golden eagles in the Lower 48 states.

After eagles ingest lead, acid in their stomachs breaks the neurotoxin down: The lead moves into the bloodstream, then into soft tissues like the liver and finally accumulates in the animals’ bones. Bone samples, collected from the femurs of dead eagles, can reveal chronic lead poisoning that recurs throughout an animal’s lifetime.

The study authors found that up to 33% of the bald eagles and up to 35% of the golden eagles they looked at showed signs of acute poisoning. Almost 50% of the 448 dead bald and golden eagles they sampled had bone lead concentra-tions above the threshold that veterinary pathologists classify as indicative of clinical poisoning.

The study authors found that up to 33% of the bald eagles and up to 35% of the golden eagles they looked at showed signs of acute poisoning. Almost 50% of the 448 dead bald and golden eagles they sampled had bone lead concentra-tions above the threshold that veterinary pathologists classify as indicative of clinical poisoning.

The study authors found that up to 33% of the bald eagles and up to 35% of the golden eagles they looked at showed signs of acute poisoning. Almost 50% of the 448 dead bald and golden eagles they sampled had bone lead concentra-tions above the threshold that veterinary pathologists classify as indicative of clinical poisoning.
Copper ammunition is more expensive than lead, Mr. Oliva said, adding that if hunters have concerns, they can also bury gut piles or field-dress animals out of the woods.

 

[Rifleman86]

I already prefer monos due to terminal performance, but this is bullshit. You know they are going to push to ban recreational shooting in federal land due to this crap.

 

[WCB]

Wait 1% stunted growth is more concerning than 4%....??? Also, I got money that more are killed by wind turbines and urbanization that lead from bullets.

 

[Rich M]

Where they getting it? Carrion? Fish?

I see bald eagles daily and we have steel shot rules for ducks.

Bunch of BS

 

[jmez]

I've never seen a bald eagle on a big game animal gut pile. I'm sure they find some but it isn't common.

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[Flyjunky]

I'm wondering where they are ingesting this lead as well. Isn't the diet of eagles mostly made up of fish, compared to game? I remember somebody posting a study about lead leaching into waterways where it gets into fish....hmmm.

These days, you can get science to say whatever you want it to say. That should be painfully obvious to all considering these last 2 years.

 

[Bubblehide]

How was the lead identified and tied to bullets?
I ask this specifically due to past so called studies mistakenly identifying the lead source as from bullets.

 

[sneaky]

Now they can publish a study on how many raptors get smacked by cars on the highway. I'll venture it's a far higher number than those eating lead fragments.

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[displacedtexan]

How was the lead identified and tied to bullets?
I ask this specifically due to past so called studies mistakenly identifying the lead source as from bullets.

Lead-poisoning of Eagles – Sutton Center

www.suttoncenter.org

They have been researching lead and raptors for a long time.

I know the head biologist. He's a big hunter and shooter.

He shoots lead core at paper, monos and nontox at animals.

 

[flatlanderhuffandpuff]

Probably getting it from all those car batteries I throw in the ocean.

I see more eagles every year. It's only a matter of time before they become a bother around here the way hawks are.

 

[RancherJohn]

I've never seen a bald eagle on a big game animal gut pile. I'm sure they find some but it isn't common.

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This picture of a bald eagle was taken Jan 30, 2022 as it rested from feeding on the gut pile out of @accountantsanonymous elk (mono bullet). In the course of two days I saw at least 1 bald eagle and 2 golden eagles eating off the gut pile. I saw similar numbers off the gut pile of my cow elk (mono bullet) at the end of Dec. I'd believe they could accumulate lead levels high enough over a lifetime to cause problems if they were in an area that had sufficient gut piles/carcasses to feed off of year after year, but I wouldn't think it's common across the entirety of their range.

I've also seen those golden eagles come down and feed on dead/crippled ground squirrels after we thin them out around the house and shop with the .17hmr.

Not that I really care (considering I add lead to the coyotes at 2900fps), but I'm curious how lead levels stack up compared to magpies, ravens, and coyotes (the other three I saw consistently in those gut piles). They seemed to hit the pile more often and for longer than the eagles did.

 

[backcountry_hunter]

Now they can publish a study on how many raptors get smacked by cars on the highway. I'll venture it's a far higher number than those eating lead fragments.

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To me the bigger elephant in the room here is with the push to find alternative energy sources, we construct windmills all over the most logical (from a winds perspective) places in the country regardless of the environmental impact beyond the energy being created. With those comes a known amount of mortaltiy to bird species and specifically eagles and other birds of prey. We literally say in the same breath that "x" amount of raptors dyeing for the sake of windmills is acceptable but in the off chance that one preys on a gut pile and then ingests the lead is far too great to risk.

Nevermind they made arguably the most successful recovery than any other specie in NA when more lead projectiles were being sent into the landscape than ever before in history.

 

[KurtR]

Wind towers are a bigger problem to all birds than lead. Used to be a huge migration in eastern sodak but with all the wind towers it has pushed farther west. Might be a coincidence but alot of waterfowl hunters have noticed it up here

 

[jKsled]

Saw this last night - in the NBC article they labeled the x-ray image as "lead fragments" when it clearly looked like bb's...

Regardless, I've seen eagles eating gut piles and roadkill carcasses in WI many times - as they expand away from waterways more of their food source is small mammals and large mammal carrion.

 

[doc holiday13]

Wouldn't they want to take samples of true carrion birds?? AKA vultures. Because Vultures definitely only eat dead shit, and eagles are not 100% scavenger..

 

[jmez]

I can't read the WSJ article. I read a similar article about this yesterday. Did the WSJ mention that the over all population of bald eagles quadrupled during the study period?

 

[ODB]

Wouldn't they want to take samples of true carrion birds?? AKA vultures. Because Vultures definitely only eat dead shit, and eagles are not 100% scavenger..

That’s a good point.

Secondary Poisoning is a big reason vultures in Kenya have been on serious decline. Herders poison animals in the hopes lion eat them, but vultures get to the carcass and poof. It’s a serious issue. When I was there a few years ago I saw only a handful of vultures, but oddly enough, saw several dead animals (in the bush, not on farms) that had never been touched by a vulture

One would think the vultures Here would suffer the same fate.

 

[WCB]

I can't read the WSJ article. I read a similar article about this yesterday. Did the WSJ mention that the over all population of bald eagles quadrupled during the study period?

Of course not...I also don't see the mention of the increase in Golden Eagle populations year over year or that fact that studies have been done on urban sprawl in the SW U.S. that greatly impacts Golden Eagles in that area.

Below is the results of a study by the U.S.F.W.S. on radio transmitted Golden Eagles. Lead Toxicosis is the lowest determined cause of death from Anthropogenic (human caused) death on the chart. Lower than birds that were trapped. 1/3 of the amount that are electrocuted and 1/6 of the amount of Eagles straight up shot (I guess you could call that lead poising) . Other poising accounted for 6.5Xs the death of Goldens. 6-7% of the human caused deaths were directly attributed to lead poising.

I know sick birds that perhaps have not died can result in failed clutches and nesting success but I guarantee 94% of the birds that died in this study due to human causes have 0% chance at breeding. Also Electrocution seems to greatly impact future breeding population...by this chart about 8x that of Lead Poisoned birds.

 

[RyanT26]

“In the past 10 years, bald eagle populations have increased fourfold,” Ruiz-Gutiérrez said.

Last winter, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated bald eagle populations had soared to include 71,400 nesting pairs and more than 316,700 individual birds.

Sounds like they’re doing fine to me. I’m gonna keep shooting lead.