The primary toxic element featured in this article
What is Lead?
The four target species of this study
Golden Eagle, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulture, Cinereous vulture
Which study area saw the highest compositional proportion of the Cinereous Vulture?
Study Area IV: Provence
Which two species saw the highest rates of clinical and sub-clinical poisoning in soft tissues and long bone?
Golden Eagles and griffon Vultures
The meaning of ingest
take (food, drink, or another substance) into the body by swallowing it
The main way birds of prey and scavengers ingest lead particles from hunting ammunition
What is feeding off of carcasses/game left behind by hunters after being shot by lead ammunition
Name 3 causes of death deemed as "artificial mortality"
Collisions (power lines, ski cables, wind turbines, etc.), bird strike with a helicopter, car collisions, electrocution, human nest disturbance (nestling death), illegal shooting, poisoning
a) What differentiates these 4 graphs and b) what do they show?
a) Species
b) Lead levels in brain, liver, kidney, long and small bone
For which one species were differences among age classes significant? Why would that be?
Golden Eagles
The meaning of Bioaccumulation
Bioaccumulation refers to the buildup of a substance within a single organism over time
The 4 parameters tested for variation and difference when it came to avian lead exposure in this study
1) Sectors of the study area 2) species 3) Age class 4) ingested lead particles vs. embedded lead gunshot vs. neither
High lead levels found in what parts of the avian body reflect a recent exposure to lead, and what parts reflect lifetime accumulation?
Liver and kidney reflect recent exposure, bone concentrations reflect lifetime accumulation
What do these two graphs show about avian lead poisoning?
"lead is absorbed to a much lesser extent from embedded than from ingested shot"
Which part of the body revealed the highest median values of lead concentrations? The lowest?
Highest = Bones
Lowest = The brain
(Liver and kidney intermediate)
The meaning of Viscera
The soft internal organs of the body, including the lungs, the heart, and the organs of the digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems
According to the European Chemicals Agency, how many tons of lead gunshot are dispersed each year in the European Union?
21,000 tons
Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GF-AAS)
a) What feature of avian behavior does this figure address?
b) Why do Golden Eagles seem more exposed to lead ingestion?
a) Feeding ecology/distribution of taxon and related availability of food sources
b) Golden Eagles prefer mountainous regions where hunted game are often left (or at least their soft organs) by hunters, and they are top predators, exposing them to more trophic levels and lead-carrying prey
What percentage of total samples fell under the "artificial mortality" category? What percentage of total recoveries died due to suspected lead poisoning?
61.9% faced artificial mortality!
12.7% due to lead poisoning
The meaning of Cinereous
(especially of hair or feathers) ash-gray