Poisoned eagle shows cold ammo still deadly

January 10, 2012 12:10 am

The immature bald eagle came to the center from Fauquier County at the end of December. Unfortunately, the bird had to be put down two days after admission.

Lead shrapnel left in field-dressed deer can be a threat to eagles.

THE CALL from concerned Caro- line County landowners about an injured eagle came about two months ago, sending a local animal rescue volunteer to a ravine near the Rappahannock River.

There, Spotsylvania County wildlife rehabilitator Valerie Ackerman found the disoriented adult eagle huddled under some branches.

After doing a quick assessment, she took the eagle to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro for examination and treatment.

There, Director of Veterinary Services Dave McRuer said X-rays, blood analysis and a complete physical quickly found the bird's problem--lead poisoning.

The amount of the deadly metal in the bird's blood--most likely from feeding on the remains of a deer felled with lead ammunition--was several times higher than eagles can recover from.

"Levels that high quickly attack the bird's eyes, rendering it blind," said McRuer, who added that the toxic metal also attacks an eagle's nerves, liver, kidneys, GI tract and lungs, the latter to the point where it has trouble breathing.

Because the bird couldn't recover from such high levels of lead in its system, it was put down.

McRuer, others at the nationally known wildlife hospital and a growing number of environmentalist and hunters are beginning to sound an alarm about how animals like the one in Caroline meet such ignoble and needless ends.

They point to the remains of deer field-dressed and left in the woods as the source of lead, either from pieces of rifle bullets that shatter after impact or pellets of lead from shotgun shells.

Ed Clark, president of the center, speaks to the issue from an interesting viewpoint. On one hand, he's in charge of the hospital that in 2011 treated 21 eagles found to have lead poisoning, more than half of all the eagles treated by the center during the year.

But, since childhood, Clark has also been an avid hunter, owning and using a range of firearms to hunt all manner of animals, including deer.

Although some organizations have called for a complete ban on all lead ammunition, he sees the answer in a few simple additions to hunter education.

"When we teach people about the safe use of firearms, we emphasize not to shoot at rocks, water or hard surfaces out of concern for ricochets. We teach them to be aware of what's behind what they're shooting at," he said. "We emphasize that each hunter is responsible for each bullet they shoot."

From there, he said, it's a short step for hunters to learn they need to accept responsibility for any secondhand damage a bullet can do--including what happens when the shattered bits of lead ammunition are eaten by animals that feed on the remains of deer kills left in the woods.

The simplest of solutions: "Burying or removing all of the remains," said Clark. "That's really just showing good manners as a hunter, but it would save birds and other scavengers."

Short of that, he said, simply covering the remains with brush and branches can go a long way toward protecting eagles, hawks and other birds that are more vulnerable to lead poisoning than larger, mammalian scavengers.

McRuer noted that eagles and other raptors don't have extraordinary senses of smell, "so if you make it hard to spot remains from the air, you'll help protect the birds most likely to be hurt the most feeding on them."

Another sure way to prevent lead poisoning, one which Clark adopted a while back, is using copper bullets instead of lead.

"They are a little more expensive, but you only need to use the copper ammunition when you're actually taking a shot while hunting," he said. "For target shooting or sighting the gun, you can still use the lead."

He noted that he bought a box of copper bullets years ago, "and it's still half-full."

Clark said that a call by a few different ecological organizations for a complete ban on all lead ammunition, similar to restrictions imposed on hunting waterfowl years ago, has antagonized hunters for no reason.

"It doesn't require regulatory changes," said Clark. "We just need to get information into the hands of ethical hunters. Once they are informed about how to prevent these secondhand deaths, I believe they'll do the right thing."

wildlifecenter.org

Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com