Let’s say you’re a real American patriot who loves to hunt and has a large, gaudy decal of a bald eagle on your truck. You think you’re only killing some deer while honoring the proud symbol of our nation’s freedom and majesty, but you’re actually killing both. That’s because bald eagles are getting lead poisoning from all the bullets you’re pumping into deer.
Recent research out of Cornell University and published in the Journal of Wildlife Management shows that our beloved national mascot is the most vulnerable of all deer-scavenging species in New York State to get lead contamination from hunters’ ammunition. The big beautiful patriotic birds tend to eat lead fragments from bullets that scatter on impact. Is that stupid of them to do? Absolutely. But they don’t know any better, for they are birds.
They’re not the only species getting lead poisoning from bullets. Virginia opossums and crows are also on there. Really disappointed in the crows. They were supposed to be smarter than this but alas, they are also just birds at the end of the day.
Previous studies have shown that nearly 40 percent of bald eagles sampled in the northeastern United States have toxic levels of lead, which impairs their population growth.
Scientists recommend that hunters switch to non-toxic ammunition and better manage carcass disposal so they don’t leave so many contaminated parts behind. All of this is a real shame, too, because following the ban on DDT in 1972, bald eagle populations started flourishing again. And now lead left behind as a byproduct of deer hunting has reduced the growth rate of bald eagle populations in the Northeast by 4 percent for females and 6 percent for males annually. Good job, everyone!
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The post Deer Hunting Is Giving Bald Eagles Lead Poisoning appeared first on VICE.
