Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles

• Published in: Ambio Vol. 47; no. 8; pp. 858 - 868
• Main Authors: Isomursu, Marja, Koivusaari, Juhani, Stjernberg, Torsten, Hirvelä-Koski, Varpu, Venäläinen, Eija-Riitta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Science + Business Media 01.12.2018; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ammunition; Animals; Atmospheric Sciences; Automobile Driving; Birds; Carcasses; Chemical analysis; Eagles; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Electric Injuries - etiology; Electric power; Electric power lines; Environment; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Environmental Management; Environmental Pollutants; Extinction, Biological; Finland; Firearms; Human Activities; Human impact; Human influences; Humans; Kidney - chemistry; Kidney - pathology; Lead content; Lead poisoning; Lead Poisoning - mortality; Lead Poisoning - veterinary; Liver - chemistry; Liver - pathology; Mercury; Mercury Poisoning - mortality; Mercury Poisoning - veterinary; Mortality; Mortality factors; Necropsy; Physical Geography; Poisoning; Pollutants; Population decline; Power lines; Power Plants; RESEARCH ARTICLE; Wounds and Injuries - etiology; Wounds and Injuries - veterinary; Finland; Mortality factors; Disease; Lead poisoning; Mercury; White-tailed eagle; Finland
• ISSN: 0044-7447; 1654-7209
• DOI: 10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9

The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) suffered a severe population decline due to environmental pollutants in the Baltic Sea area ca. 50 years ago but has since been recovering. The main threats for the white-tailed eagle in Finland are now often related to human activities. We examined the human impact on the white-tailed eagle by determining mortality factors of 123 carcasses collected during 2000–2014. Routine necropsy with chemical analyses for lead and mercury were done on all carcasses. We found human-related factors accounting for 60% of the causes of death. The most important of these was lead poisoning (31% of all cases) followed by human-related accidents (e.g. electric power lines and traffic) (24%). The temporal and regional patterns of occurrence of lead poisonings suggested spent lead ammunition as the source. Lead shot was found in the gizzards of some lead-poisoned birds. Scavenging behaviour exposes the white-tailed eagle to lead from spent ammunition.