Raptors and lead

[pigeon controller]

Just a thought when we are out shooting a number of our distant kills fly off and die in trees etc. we often find the carcasses when we do the final clear up and walk the boundaries . These have been eaten by raptors and small rodents, we hear of dead raptors being found and examined and lead shot found. Could this be due to the fact that they are purely scavengers and pay the price of taking tainted meat?

[robbiep]

If (and I appreciate it's a big 'if') the raptors are being post-mortemed properly, then it should be readily apparent if the shot is in the stomach/crop, rather than embedded in the breast / wing / leg, etc.

Edited October 6, 2015 by robbiep

[JDog]

An X-Ray will show lead in the crop or alimentary canal of a bird of prey which has been eating carrion as you describe. This could easily be portrayed as lead shot in the body.

[anser2]

Any lead in the digestive system probably causes little harm as long as it passes through the bird within a day or two. But if the lead is stored in the gizzard it is used to grind up hard food . The lead only lasts a few weeks before it is ground down and dissolved in the blood which will then kill the bird. And before anyone questions this there are plenty of papers proving the effect of lead on condors in the USA . Also there are a number of pigeon shooters on here who pass their birds onto raptor keepers and they will insist the birds are shot with steel and not lead. Lead not only kills the birds you shoot , it keeps killing down the avian food chain.

Edited October 7, 2015 by anser2

[ayrshiretaxidermy]

Lead in the crop has a chance of coming back up in a casting (pellet). Tho if a piece get down into the digestive system, it'll get broken down and into the bloodstream pretty quickly. Birds dead in a day or two.

 

I often wonder how many of the reported "poisoned" raptors have eaten lead shot carrion and paid the price. Not only the carrion eaters, buzzards kites etc. Only yesterday, I hit a pigeon that faltered on and fell just on the edge of a wood. No sooner had it hit the floor than a sparrowhawk was on it.

 

I breed peregrines, and will only use birds I shoot myself, it's too big a risk for me otherwise.

[dad]

i found 2 dead buzzards on a farm this year that only me and my mate shoot we thought they were getting shot over the boundary or from eating rats poisoned by the farmers. this sounds a more likely cause. only last week i went to pick up a dead bird that had fallen behind me to find all the breast eaten away this was 50yds away behind the hedge and about 3 hours from shooting. i have also seen a buzzard take a young hen pheasant on the wing.

[Scully]

Any lead in the digestive system probably causes little harm as long as it passes through the bird within a day or two. But if the lead is stored in the gizzard it is used to grind up hard food . The lead only lasts a few weeks before it is ground down and dissolved in the blood which will then kill the bird. And before anyone questions this there are plenty of papers proving the effect of lead on condors in the USA . Also there are a number of pigeon shooters on here who pass their birds onto raptor keepers and they will insist the birds are shot with steel and not lead. Lead not only kills the birds you shoot , it keeps killing down the avian food chain.

According to some scientific papers, even though lead ammunition faces the possible exclusion of use in Condor habitat, lead is only part of the problems faced by Condors as they have a propensity for eating all manner of 'junk' left by humans.

http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/junk-food

Edited October 9, 2015 by Scully