Lead poisoning nearly half of US bald eagles

    Lead poisoning nearly half of US bald eagles

    In North America, the bird of prey symbol of the United States is once again at risk, this time from lead poisoning

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    The bald eagle, also known as the bald eagle, is one of the national symbols of the United States of America and for years it has had to face a series of threats that risked putting an end to its existence; among these the extremely toxic DDT insecticide banned by law only in 1972. The bird of prey was on the verge of extinction due to wild sport hunting that decimated its population, until fortunately the federal government approved programs to conservation and reproduction of the raptor to protect the species. Today, however, despite its population having quadrupled, a new danger looms on the horizon: chronic lead poisoning.





    This is revealed by a new study recently published in the journal Science which carried out tests on samples of feathers and bones of 1210 bald eagles and golden eagles collected between 2010 and 2018, evaluating their acute exposure to heavy metal and demonstrating that 50% of these birds of prey had died of lead poisoning. Very alarming data that proves that lead poisoning is lethal to birds of prey just as climate change is for many other species.

    Raptor exposure to metal is more frequent than people think because it occurs primarily due to the indigestion of prey contaminated by hunting bullets and involves in the raptor reduced ability to fly, to hunt and to reproduce and in the most serious cases breathing difficulties, convulsions and finally death.

    85 to 90% of the eagles that enter our hospital have a certain level of lead in their blood "

    Victoria Hall of the University of Minnesota Raptor Center said that as well as researchers confirm that most of the admissions occurred in the fall and winter, in the height of hunting season. In many of the eagles treated by the center, ammunition residues such as lead shot were found.

    The impact of lead poisoning on current US bald eagle populations is equally dramatic. The study's experts in fact estimated that lead poisoning reduces bald eagle population growth by 4% each year. But this threat affects not only bald and golden eagles, but also other birds including hawks, crows and swans.

    Fonte: Science

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