Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Bald Eagle

How can you help Bald Eagles? Switch your ammunition!

This immature bald eagle was brought to us after it was found down on the side of the road unable to stand or fly. Thanks to the Good Samaritans who spotted it, it was brought to our Center for evaluation and treatment.

On exam, there were no physical injuries found, but the bird was unable to stand and appeared disoriented. Due to lack of any other indications of trauma, we suspected lead poisoning. Our suspicions were confirmed by laboratory diagnostics which showed extremely toxic lead levels.

Unfortunately, over 80% of our eagle patients come in with elevated lead levels.

How do they get lead poisoning? You may be surprised to learn that Bald Eagles not only hunt for their food, but they also scavenge and eat carrion (dead animals). In Virginia, the most commonly used ammunition by deer hunters is lead bullets. After a successful kill, many hunters will field dress the deer (remove the internal organs) in the woods and leave gut piles behind. Lead fragments can travel up to 18” from the bullet wound and into the gut pile. Scavengers, like eagles, eat these gut piles and a piece of lead as small as a grain of rice can kill an adult Bald Eagle.

If the lead poisoning alone doesn’t kill the eagle, the effects (incoordination, altered mental status) make it more likely that they will be victims of vehicle or wall collisions and other trauma.

One of our current veterinary students, Charlie, of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, is holding this eagle so that we can administer its lead-chelating medication and subcutaneous fluids.

What every hunting family should know:

Lead fragments also end up in the meat that is used for human consumption, and the fragments are so small that they can’t be seen.

We receive donations of venison from hunters each year to offset some of our food costs. We have the ability to radiograph all donated meat prior to feeding out and sadly, a large portion of this meat is contaminated and has to be thrown out.

Our patients are not the only recipients of venison donations. Lead contamination in meat donated to food banks (which is critically important, especially in COVID times) has caused issues for recipients. Many of these recipients are children or pregnant women, two of the most at-risk groups.

This pamphlet by the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services has great information about lead ammunition health risks and safer alternatives.

No level of lead is safe for humans or animals. Now is the time to make the switch to non-toxic ammunition!