Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles
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...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6230332 2023-05-15T16:32:43+02:00 Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles Isomursu, Marja Koivusaari, Juhani Stjernberg, Torsten Hirvelä-Koski, Varpu Venäläinen, Eija-Riitta 2018-03-29 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6230332/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600487 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9 en eng Springer Netherlands http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6230332/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9 © Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2018 Research Article Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9 2019-12-08T01:14:03Z 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. Text Haliaeetus albicilla White-tailed eagle PubMed Central (PMC) Ambio 47 8 858 868 |
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Research Article Isomursu, Marja Koivusaari, Juhani Stjernberg, Torsten Hirvelä-Koski, Varpu Venäläinen, Eija-Riitta Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
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Research Article |
description |
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. |
format |
Text |
author |
Isomursu, Marja Koivusaari, Juhani Stjernberg, Torsten Hirvelä-Koski, Varpu Venäläinen, Eija-Riitta |
author_facet |
Isomursu, Marja Koivusaari, Juhani Stjernberg, Torsten Hirvelä-Koski, Varpu Venäläinen, Eija-Riitta |
author_sort |
Isomursu, Marja |
title |
Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
title_short |
Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
title_full |
Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
title_fullStr |
Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
title_sort |
lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
publisher |
Springer Netherlands |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6230332/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600487 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9 |
genre |
Haliaeetus albicilla White-tailed eagle |
genre_facet |
Haliaeetus albicilla White-tailed eagle |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6230332/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9 |
op_rights |
© Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2018 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9 |
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