Getting the Lead Out of Eagles

Every year wildlife rehabilitors work with bald eagles suffering from lead poisoning, says an article in the Chronicle Herald of Canada. The article profiles one bald eagle rehabilitator in Nova Scotia who gives a vivid description of an eagle suffering from lead poisoning and pleads for the ban of lead ammunition.

Read the whole article here.

An interesting addition is a comment on the ProMed listserv yesterday, that says that in northern climes, there is a distict season for lead poisoning in bald eagles, from mid-November to March. It’s not the lead shot from waterfowl hunting that does these eagles in, the commenter says. The waterfowl have already migrated south. It’s the lead fragments found in gut piles and abandoned carcasses from deer hunting season.

Read the entire comment here.

These two eagle rehabilitators are hopeful, but the uphill battle on lead shot is illustrated by Iowa’s back-and-forth over the issue. Here’s a recent article from the DesMoines Register.

Photo: Karen Laubenstein, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

White nose syndrome in Nova Scotia

White nose syndrome has been found in Nova Scotia, the fourth Canadian province to be stricken with the bat disease. The syndrome was detected in a bat found flying in daylight on March 23 in the town of Brooklyn, in Hant County. White nose syndrome had been previously found in Canada in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

Alison Whitlock, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast white nose syndrome coordinator mentioned the news during her presentation on the white nose syndrome national plan at the Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference yesterday.

Find out more from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources press release here. News stories appeared in The Global Saskatoon, The Canadian Press, and Halifax News Net.

White nose syndrome in Nova Scotia

White nose syndrome has been found in Nova Scotia, the fourth Canadian province to be stricken with the bat disease. The syndrome was detected in a bat found flying in daylight on March 23 in the town of Brooklyn, in Hant County. White nose syndrome had been previously found in Canada in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

Alison Whitlock, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast white nose syndrome coordinator mentioned the news during her presentation on the white nose syndrome national plan at the Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference yesterday.

Find out more from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources press release here. News stories appeared in The Global Saskatoon, The Canadian Press, and Halifax News Net.