Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK; RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK.
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jun 1;823:154017. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154017. Epub 2022 Mar 16.
Poisoning caused by ingestion of spent lead (Pb) ammunition in food items is a common cause of death of raptors. However, there has been no previous attempt to assess the impact of lead poisoning on populations of raptors throughout Europe or examine how this relates to the prevalence of hunting. We used measurements of lead concentration in the liver from over 3000 raptors of 22 species found dead or dying in the wild in 13 countries and a lead poisoning threshold of 20 ppm (dry weight) to assess the proportion of these in which lead poisoning caused or contributed to death. The prevalence of lead poisoning as a cause of death of raptors varied substantially among European countries and was positively correlated across countries with the reported number of hunters per unit area. Ten species had a non-zero proportion of individuals with concentrations exceeding the lead poisoning threshold ranging between 0.3% and 16.5%. The estimated annual conditional death rate from lead poisoning for these ten species averaged 0.44% (range 0.06-0.85%). Scavenging species feeding regularly on carcasses of game animals,tended to have a high annual probability of death from lead poisoning. So too did some predators which only sometimes scavenge, but prey on frequently hunted birds, such as gamebirds, waterfowl and pigeons, which may contain ingested or embedded lead shot. Small-bodied predators had a low annual probability of death from lead poisoning. Modelling indicated that European populations of adult raptors of the ten focal species averaged 6.0% smaller (range 0.2-14.4%) than they would be without the effects of lead poisoning. A given rate of lead poisoning mortality resulted in greater expected population reductions for species with high annual survival rate and late age at first breeding.
摄入食物中用过的含铅（Pb）弹药导致的中毒是猛禽死亡的常见原因。然而，此前尚未有人尝试评估铅中毒对整个欧洲猛禽种群的影响，或研究其与狩猎盛行程度的关系。我们使用在 13 个国家的 3000 多只 22 种野生死亡或濒死猛禽的肝脏中铅浓度测量值，以及 20ppm（干重）的铅中毒阈值，来评估这些猛禽中因铅中毒导致或促成死亡的比例。作为猛禽死亡原因的铅中毒流行率在欧洲各国之间存在很大差异，且与按单位面积报告的猎人数呈正相关。10 个物种的个体中，铅浓度超过中毒阈值的比例在 0.3%至 16.5%之间，非零。这 10 个物种的因铅中毒而导致的年条件死亡率估计平均值为 0.44%（范围为 0.06-0.85%）。经常以猎物尸体为食的食腐猛禽，其因铅中毒而导致的年死亡概率往往较高。有些偶尔食腐但以经常被猎捕的鸟类为食的捕食者也是如此，如猎物鸟、水禽和鸽子，它们可能含有摄入或嵌入的铅弹。体型较小的捕食者因铅中毒而导致的年死亡概率较低。模型表明，10 种重点物种的成年猛禽欧洲种群平均比没有铅中毒影响时小 6.0%（范围为 0.2-14.4%）。给定的铅中毒死亡率导致年存活率和首次繁殖年龄较高的物种的预期种群减少幅度更大。
