U.S. bald eagles comeback diminished by lead poisoning from bullets
CTV
Bald eagles have lifted themselves from the brink of extinction in the United States but deaths caused by lead poisoning from ingesting hunters' bullets left in wildlife remains are holding back their population recovery.
Population increases of the majestic bird recognized as the national symbol of the United States have been suppressed by 6.3 percent for males and 4.2 percent for females, said the study by researchers at the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University, published in the Journal of Wildlife Management this week.
"Mortalities from the ingestion of (lead) reduced the long-term growth rate and resiliency of bald eagles in the northeast United States over the last 3 decades," the study said.
The lead is found in organs left behind in the wild by hunters who "field dress," or gut, their kill, abandoning the contaminated remains to be scavenged by eagles.
Once threatened by the use of the insecticide DDT to help control disease during the Second World War, bald eagle populations have recovered enough that the species was removed from the national endangered and threatened list in 2021.
