Bald eagle at Michigan wildlife rehab center dies from lead poisoning
A rescued bald eagle had ingested so much lead in the wild that it died from poisoning, a mid-Michigan wildlife organization said.
The Wildside Rehabilitation and Education Center in Eaton Rapids says the death occurred in a male bald eagle they called Armstrong.
Lead poisoning among wildlife, especially birds, has become an increasingly frequent scenario during the past 25 years, according to the American Eagle Foundation. Even a fragment of lead as small as a grain of rice can be lethal to a mature bald eagle.
When wildlife authorities in Michigan tested the bird for lead poisoning, they said, "the lead test results were so high that the machine couldn't read them, it simply told us high."
They explained that given the testing and symptoms, lead had saturated the bird's blood so high that it faced difficulty breathing. They gave the bird medication intended to bind to heavy metals and help move them out of the body, along with supplemental oxygen.
Treatment began on Wednesday, but the bird died Friday afternoon, the agency said.
The American Eagle Foundation said many lead poisoning cases it is aware of are accidental, unintended consequences from the birds ingesting lead fishing tackle or lead ammunition fragments.
But the poisoning incidents are, in many cases, preventable, the wildlife officials said.
"Please consider using alternative ammo and sinkers. Bald Eagles are scavenger raptors, they eat the leftover gut piles from the harvested deer and if lead ammo was used, it gets left behind," the Wildside Rehabilitation and Education Center said.