Wild and Aquatic Animal Pathology Section, Veterinary Bacteriology and Pathology Research Unit, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Elektroniikkatie 3, 90590, Oulu, Finland.
, Västervikintie 346, 65280, Vaasa, Finland.
Ambio. 2018 Dec;47(8):858-868. doi: 10.1007/s13280-018-1052-9. Epub 2018 Mar 29.
The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) suffered a severe population decline due to environmental pollutants in the Baltic Sea area ca. 50 years ago but has since been recovering. The main threats for the white-tailed eagle in Finland are now often related to human activities. We examined the human impact on the white-tailed eagle by determining mortality factors of 123 carcasses collected during 2000-2014. Routine necropsy with chemical analyses for lead and mercury were done on all carcasses. We found human-related factors accounting for 60% of the causes of death. The most important of these was lead poisoning (31% of all cases) followed by human-related accidents (e.g. electric power lines and traffic) (24%). The temporal and regional patterns of occurrence of lead poisonings suggested spent lead ammunition as the source. Lead shot was found in the gizzards of some lead-poisoned birds. Scavenging behaviour exposes the white-tailed eagle to lead from spent ammunition.
白头海雕(Haliaeetus albicilla)在大约 50 年前因波罗的海地区的环境污染物而遭受严重的种群数量下降,但此后一直在恢复。在芬兰,白头海雕的主要威胁现在通常与人类活动有关。我们通过确定 2000-2014 年间收集的 123 具尸体的死亡因素来研究人类对白头海雕的影响。对所有尸体进行了常规尸检和铅、汞的化学分析。我们发现人为因素占死亡原因的 60%。其中最重要的是铅中毒(占所有病例的 31%),其次是与人有关的事故(例如电力线和交通事故)(24%)。铅中毒发生的时间和区域模式表明,使用过的含铅弹药是铅的来源。在一些铅中毒的鸟类的嗉囊中发现了铅弹。白头海雕的食腐行为使其接触到用过的弹药中的铅。