Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 11;16(3):e0247785. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247785. eCollection 2021.
In response to the health threats posed by toxic lead to humans, scavenging wildlife and the environment, there is currently a focus on transitioning from lead-based to lead-free bullets for shooting of wild animals. We compared efficiency metrics and terminal ballistic performance for lead-based and lead-free (non-lead) bullets for aerial shooting of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in eastern Australia. Ballistic testing revealed that lead-based and lead-free bullets achieved similar performance in precision and muzzle kinetic energy (E0) levels (3337.2 J and 3345.7 J, respectively). An aerial shooting trial was conducted with wild pigs shot with one type of lead-based and one type of lead-free bullets under identical conditions. Observations were made from 859 shooting events (n = 430 and 429 respectively), with a sub-set of pigs examined via gross post-mortem (n = 100 and 108 respectively), and a further sub-set examined via radiography (n = 94 and 101 respectively). The mean number of bullets fired per pig killed did not differ greatly between lead-based and lead-free bullets respectively (4.09 vs 3.91), nor did the mean number of bullet wound tracts in each animal via post-mortem inspection (3.29 vs 2.98). However, radiography revealed a higher average number of fragments per animal (median >300 vs median = 55) and a broader distribution of fragments with lead-based bullets. Our results suggest that lead-based and lead-free bullets are similarly effective for aerial shooting of wild pigs, but that the bullet types behave differently, with lead-based bullets displaying a higher degree of fragmentation. These results suggest that aerial shooting may be a particularly important contributor to scavenging wildlife being exposed to lead and that investigation of lead-free bullets for this use should continue.
针对有毒铅对人类、野生动物和环境构成的健康威胁，目前人们关注的焦点是将用于射击野生动物的含铅子弹过渡为无铅子弹。我们比较了澳大利亚东部用于空中射击野猪（Sus scrofa）的含铅和无铅（无铅）子弹的效率指标和终端弹道性能。弹道测试表明，含铅和无铅子弹在精度和枪口动能（E0）水平上表现出相似的性能（分别为 3337.2 J 和 3345.7 J）。在相同条件下，对用一种含铅子弹和一种无铅子弹射击的野猪进行了空中射击试验。对 859 次射击事件（分别为 n = 430 和 429）进行了观察，对一部分野猪进行了大体剖检（分别为 n = 100 和 108），对另一部分野猪进行了 X 光检查（分别为 n = 94 和 101）。含铅和无铅子弹分别杀死每头猪所需的平均子弹数差异不大（分别为 4.09 发和 3.91 发），通过大体剖检检查每只动物的子弹伤道数也差异不大（分别为 3.29 发和 2.98 发）。然而，X 光检查显示，每只动物的平均碎片数更高（中位数>300 与中位数=55），且含铅子弹的碎片分布更广。我们的结果表明，含铅和无铅子弹在空中射击野猪方面同样有效，但子弹类型的行为不同，含铅子弹的碎片程度更高。这些结果表明，空中射击可能是导致野生动物接触铅的一个特别重要的因素，应该继续研究无铅子弹在这方面的应用。
