This week on Wildlife Weekly, host Jackie Edmunds talks about lead toxicity and how it impacts animals. Birds can easily get lead toxicity from eating carcasses left from hunting. This can cause a lot of problems for birds.
Lead toxicity can cause many things including neurological issues and lethargy. By bringing a bird in the lead toxicity can be helped by a process where different compounds take out the lead from the blood stream, but the lead could’ve been ingested physically so a process called lavage is taken and the lead is washed out. Birds like geese and swan ingest lead by picking up lead sinkers and lead shot. Other species that get lead toxicity are scavengers like cranes, or even possum.
If you find an animal that appears to be suffering from lead toxicity you can call your local wildlife center. The number for the Dane County Wildlife Center is (608) 287-3235.