Update Feb. 26, 2021 — The Bald Eagle taken in by the Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center suffered from severe lead poisoning and was unable to overcome its health issues. It died earlier this month. Thank you to DCHS for doing all you could to save it.
Last week's issue of the Wisconsin Outdoor News (WON) has a story some Madison Audubon volunteers have been following with great concern. An adult Bald Eagle in distress was found near Barneveld and is now receiving care at the Dane County Humane Society. As I write this, his prognosis is guarded.
He has been diagnosed with lead poisoning. He has shotgun pellets from an old injury and has also probably eaten lead fragments as he scavenged the remains of deer shot by hunters.
Madison Audubon’s Bald Eagle Nest Watch volunteers have been monitoring an active bald eagle's nest in that area for a couple of years. It's possible this eagle was one of a nesting pair at some point. The nest is still active with a pair of eagles.
This eagle has every right to wonder: is this any way to treat your national symbol and a magnificent bird? No, and it needs to stop.
Bald Eagle, photo by Monica Hall
Ammunition
We have known for decades that the use of lead ammunition is harmful to many different bird species. Our volunteer eagle watchers and others who find or rehabilitate birds suffering from lead poisoning see the suffering the birds endure. They learn by bitter experience that the cure rate is low; lead poisoning is not easy to treat. The rehabbers spent dozens or hundreds of hours with many of the victims. The care takes medicines and rehab facilities. Treating lead poisoning can cost thousands of dollars in some cases. Switching to non-toxic ammunition or gear is inconvenient and carries some financial costs. Those are reasonable to bear in order to reduce the amount of death and suffering such gear costs our birds.
The first focus was on the use of lead pellets in shotgun shells used for waterfowl hunting. As a result of the discovery that what harm this ammunition did to waterfowl, non-lead, usually referred to as non-toxic, shotgun shells have been required for waterfowl hunting for many years. In more recent years some federal and state conservation agencies have required the use of non-toxic shotgun shells on some public lands when hunters pursue certain species.
In the intervening years, a variety of non-toxic shotgun shells have been developed with different metals, alloys, and other substances. While they cost a bit more than traditional lead, they perform as well and, in a couple of instances, better than lead.
Recently, the focus has expanded to the lead bullets used in rifles for bigger game hunting, deer, for example. When a lead bullet hits an animal, it sometimes fragments. Those fragments can remain in the part of the animal left on the landscape and scavenged by other creatures, including birds such as Condors In California, or Bald Eagles in Wisconsin. Lead is always toxic and will poison an animal when ingested in that form.
Again, alternative cartridges with non-toxic bullets have been developed and tested. A couple of weeks prior to the eagle story, WON ran a column by one of its shooting authors showing that such cartridges are effective. A retired WDNR wildlife biologist ran a series of tests showing that some of those loads are very suitable for hunting Wisconsin whitetail deer.
Tackle
Yet another source of lead in the environment is fishing. Lead is used in a fair amount of fishing gear (sinkers and jigs would be good examples) that often end up in the bottom of a stream, river, pond or lake or, if you cast like me, in the nearest tree. Again, alternatives to lead fishing gear are now widely available.
Fishing is perhaps a bit more complicated than hunting because many anglers think that much of the lost gear on the bottom of all that water is not going to be eaten by fish or birds or anything else. But a summary of recent research (Lead Poisoning from Ingestion of Fishing Gear: A Review, by Grade et al, 2019) demonstrates that a lot of this lead gear is available to birds. It is harming or killing many; the species most at risk in North America is the Common Loon.
Common Loon, photo by Monica Hall
Getting the Lead Out
We need to stop using lead ammunition and fishing gear and we are probably going to need regulations to accomplish that. The review article on fishing noted that some educational and incentive programs have tried to persuade anglers to give up lead gear. Basically, they don't work in the absence of clear, legal prohibitions on such gear. With regard to hunting, the time is now. With fishing, my sense is that more research and much more education are needed to persuade anglers this is a big problem.
Here are some suggestions for steps forward:
The land trust community should get its house in order. Some land trust properties are open to some forms of hunting and fishing. We should prohibit the use of lead ammunition and fishing gear on those properties.
Secondly, Madison Audubon should reach out to other Wisconsin Audubon Chapters and other conservation organizations to create a coalition to begin work in earnest on these issues.
Finally, back to getting our own houses in order, for all of us who fish and/or hunt, it's time to get the lead out.
Written by Topf Wells, Madison Audubon board member and advocacy committee chair
