Hazards of Lead

 

Condors eat carcasses and gut piles

When those remains contain lead ammunition, condors eat lead

Lead is killing condors.

Between 1992 and 2008:

  • There have been hundreds of instances of blood lead levels in condors exceeding the limit recommended for human children by the CDC

  • In California, at least 12 birds have died from lead poisoning, and at least 50 birds have had toxic lead levels high enough to require treatment.

  • In Arizona, 12 birds have died from lead poisoning and toxic lead levels high enough to require treatment have occurred an average 16 times per year between 2000 and 2007.

Recent scientific studies have shown a definitive link between spent lead ammunition and lead poisoning in condors. Condors consume lead when feeding on animal carcasses or gut piles that contain lead ammunition.

Ingesting a bullet fragment the size of a fingernail clipping can be lethal. Once lead enters the bloodstream, it can damage a bird's nervous system and paralyze its digestive tract. Without immediate medical assistance, poisoned condors usually starve to death or become weakened and easy for predators to catch.

This condor ingested at least 30 lead fragments after feeding on a coyote carcass. It survived because it received emergency treatment, but died two years later due to another lead poisoning incident.

 

 

This radiograph shows the hundreds of fragments that were left in mule deer that was shot with a 175 gr. 7mm Remington Magnum lead core bullet. Even one of these fragments is enough to threaten the health of a California condor.
 

This radiograph of a ground squirrel shot with a lead rimfire .22 bullet shows the numerous fragments that are scattered within the dotted zone.

 

 

Every year, an estimated 30,000 carcasses and gut piles are left in the condor range. This radiograph of a gut pile shows 450 lead fragments from a 130 gr. .270 Winchester bullet.

 

 

When retrieved after being fired, this 150 gr. lead bullet had lost 30% of its original weight due to fragmentation.

Even premium lead bonded bullets claim only a 60 - 70% maximum retention weight when fired, while non-lead bullets can retain up to 100% of their original weights. Fragments can spread up to twelve inches from the wound channel. Larger fragments can be seen and felt, but many are so small that they aren't visible to the naked eye.

 

It's not just condors

Lead also poisons humans and other wildlife

Lead in the environment is a problem for other wildlife and for humans. Historically, lead has been introduced into the environment in a number of ways - through leaded gasoline, leaded paint, lead used in a variety of manufacturing processes, and through ammunition. As awareness of the dangers of lead has increased, its use in products has decreased. Unfortunately, lead continues to remain a problem for wildlife.

Secondary Poisoning

Lead fragments can be ingested by any animal that eats meat, including humans. Lead poisoning continues to be a problem with bald eagles, golden eagles, and other birds of prey.

Safe for Humans?

In societies where a large percentage of the diet consists of wild birds and mammals gathered by hunting, a significant proportion of the population have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood, exceeding the recommended maximum values for humans.
Lead Poisoning in Wildlife
  • In 1991, a federal ban was placed on the use of lead shot in all waterfowl hunting.

  • Swans, cranes, loons, bald eagles, golden eagles, and other raptors continue to succumb to lead poisoning after ingesting lead bullet fragments, pellets, and sinkers trapped in fish and other prey.

 Humans and Lead

Lead poisoning in humans has been known for centuries. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than 800,000 U.S. children ages one to five have elevated lead levels in their blood.

Recent awareness of lead bullet fragments being found in processed venison have prompted various State health departments to examine the risk of food pantries using donated deer that were shot with lead ammunition.

 

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