Posted on 02/09/2010 4:17:45 AM PST by marktwain
HELENA — Rob Domenech and his research associates didn’t know what they were looking for when they started testing the blood of golden eagles along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front three years ago.
What they found was lead. In some cases, lots of it.
“This was kind of a shock to us,” he said in an interview from his Missoula office. “We never considered it.”
Domenech, executive director of Raptor View Research Institute, was one of hundreds of people to send comments to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission in what has become a controversial proposal to ban lead shot on state-owned wildlife management areas.
The commission meets in Helena Thursday to consider on the idea.
Unlike the vast majority of the commentators, Domenech and his associates say they support such a ban, or at least, they say, there’s enough question about the effects of lead on wildlife — and people — that Montana ought to begin educating hunters about the benefits of lead alternative ammunition.
Gary Marbut, executive director of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, said that the agency made no scientific case in favor of the ban and that hunters and gun owners have reason to be suspicious of such proposals.
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.com ...
42 birds tested:
18 birds measured "background" at 0-10 ug/dL
19 birds measured "sub-clinical" at 10-60 ug/dL
2 birds measured "clinical" at 60-100 ug/dL
3 birds measured "acute" at >100 ug/dL
42 birds does not constitute a statistically significant sample.
The designated categories are for humans.
The 19 birds measured "subclinical" were added to the higher levels in order to state: "In all, we found that 58% of the 42 fall migrant Golden Eagles sampled had elevated blood-lead levels."
The analysis and conclusion are admittedly pure speculation:
"We speculate that the five birds (12%) showing at least clinical exposure levels (≥60 μg/dL) had recently ingested lead-tainted carcasses and/or offal piles, likely during migration."
"Eagles with lower, but detectable blood lead levels may have had earlier exposure with the majority of the lead already deposited in other organs and bone."
"We surmise the use of lead-core ammunition for hunting is the major source for lead exposure in Golden Eagles, though we cannot identify a particular source species or region, in part because of the overlapping timing of hunting seasons for various game species in different regions of the Rocky Mountains and the very large area visited by Golden Eagles during migration season."
"We are uncertain whether our preliminary numbers represent the northern migratory population of Golden Eagles as a whole, but a serious threat to the welfare of the species on a landscape level appears plausible."
"We believe an intensive educational outreach campaign and a switch away from lead-containing hunting ammunition to alternative, less toxic materials are appropriate ways to protect these and other scavenging species, as well as human consumers of gun-killed animals."
.
This is pathetic "science" and wouldn't pass muster at any level of credible academia.
See 21.
Right. There are lead mines all over central Montana. I used to live in Helena and the ASARCO smelter in East Helena was one of the largest in the US before it shut down in 2002. Prickly Pear creek’s water was so contaminated with lead and arsenic, it couldn’t even be used to irrigate crops.
Researcher Finds High Mercury Levels In Montana Osprey
Here they're going after the mining industry.
Or it could be from prarie dog hunters.
Here is the answer: depleted uranium
They were able to pull this crap with Condors because they are large buzzards that eat dead animals and therefore could pick up lead by ingesting bullets(and I call BS on that also), but eagles on eat live animals and the odds one of them has any lead pellets or bullets in them is to ridiculous to contemplate.
Just another attempt to regulate ammo and therefore our guns.
Thanks for the info. That was my implication, but I didn’t have the hard evidence you cited. Thanks for that.
Everytime there is an oil spill, I think the same thing, all the ships sunk during WW 2 and oil loss, gee how come we're not up to our arse's in oil world wide..
Only in government are you given an open ended, unfocused task to do.
That doesn't matter! We must BAN LEAD, and BAN IT *NOW*!!!!1!!!!!11!</envirowacko>
I watched this happen in CA.
One in-the-know State Fish & Game Commissioner asked of those pushing for the ban on lead core bullets, related to big game (mainly deer or wild hog)hunting;
The answer was in the affirmative.
The same Commissioner then asked;
Commish; "Then what was the source?"
Answer in part; "Lead tire weights..." with no actual evidence even really suggesting fragmented bullets leaving lead in offal piles or discards that would then have been consumed by Condors. period.
Some months later, like six-eighteen months AFTER this particular in-the-know Commish retired, and another, more-beholden-to-the-greenies politico was appointed, these same "presenters" of evidence, pushing for the lead ban while working for the DF&G and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the like, claimed that lead contamination coming from rifle bullets was some sort of epidemic.
What changed in that period of time, other than that one commissioner retiring? No evidence was made to back the claim, nor was the claim challenged in any way.
As far as big game bullets being a problem, that can be addressed through simple practices, close examination of harvested animals, right where they drop, and burial of any trim (BETTER IS TO TRIM LATER) along with burial or removal of offal coming from whichever side of the diaphragm a bullet passed through...if there is any reasonable possibility fragmenting could have entered such portions. (I've taken more than one animal, where such was an outright impossibility, though I have traced some bullet 'turn' thru a carcass, after the projectile hit a rib on the way IN, before passing ALL THE WAY THROUGH.)
For Condors, just pushing the gut pile under thick bushes has been shown to effectively enough keep them from getting at the leavings. But they won't share that info...it's more likely than not buried, at this point.
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