Saturday, April 09, 2022

Demographic implications of lead poisoning for eagles across North America. Really!

The lead poisoning threat to birds has been reported many times now for at least 50 or more years! If it was such a serious problem, most birds would be dead by now!

Notice computer models are used again (hint climate change) to create a sense of urgency! There are lies, damned lies and computer models!

"... Despite this headway, anthropogenic lead remains an underappreciated threat to wildlife. ..."

From the abstract:
"Lead poisoning occurs worldwide in populations of predatory birds, but exposure rates and population impacts are known only from regional studies. We evaluated the lead exposure of 1210 bald and golden eagles from 38 US states across North America, including 620 live eagles. We detected unexpectedly high frequencies of lead poisoning of eagles, both chronic (46 to 47% of bald and golden eagles, as measured in bone) and acute (27 to 33% of bald eagles and 7 to 35% of golden eagles, as measured in liver, blood, and feathers). Frequency of lead poisoning was influenced by age and, for bald eagles, by region and season. Continent-wide demographic modeling suggests that poisoning at this level suppresses population growth rates for bald eagles by 3.8% (95% confidence interval: 2.5%, 5.4%) and for golden eagles by 0.8% (0.7%, 0.9%). Lead poisoning is an underappreciated but important constraint on continent-wide populations of these iconic protected species."

Demographic implications of lead poisoning for eagles across North America

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