WHAT CAN YOU DO: Write a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Commission by Tues. April 4, 2000
Address your letters to: Fish and Wildlife Commission:
Send via e-mail: commission@dfw.wa.gov or FAX to (360)902-2448
UPDATE AUGUST 1, 2000
Whatcom County swan death count hits 100
SWANS DYING OF LEAD POISONING IN WASHINGTON STATE AND BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA.
Update 6 February 2000
Since late January more than 70 trumpeter swans and 3 tundra swans have been found dead from apparent lead poisoning in north Whatcom County, Washington and adjacent areas in British Columbia to the north. All but a few of the birds were found on the U.S. side, dead or dying on the ponds they use for night roosts.
Our Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service are working on finding where the swans are picking up the lead shot and working to insure that this die-off does not happen again. As you will note in the news release, a similar, but somewhat smaller number of swans died in 1992 in the same geographic area. It is unclear why eight years have passed and now we have another, but larger number of swans dying in the same geographical area.
The swans pick up the lead shot in areas where they are feeding. They ingest the pellets thinking they are grit (small stones). Lead shot pellets are the same general size of the grit they prefer. Grit is needed to aid in the grinding of food in their gizzards.
Depending on what a swan eats for food, it takes only 3 to 4 pellets to cause lead poisoning. Some of the birds found dead have more than 30 pellets in their gizzards. Lead poisoning results when the food is ground against the grit and lead shot in the gizzard during digestion. Lead is a soft metal and gets ground down during this process and then is taken into the blood stream causing the symptoms of lead poisoning. Sometimes this process is slow and the birds can survive. Other times, if they eat corn for example, the grain is hard and the lead is ground down more quickly, thus resulting in a high release of lead into the system and the swans die. We know that swans can die from 3-4 lead pellets if they eat corn.
Swans spend their winter days between feeding areas and night roosts. Most night roosts are somewhere on water. Swans fly into the night roosts, if they feel ill they do not leave the roost the next day, get gradually weaker and eventually die at the roost site. Therefore, they likely pick up the lead somewhere other than the night roost sites.
As more is known, this page will be updated. If you have information that you think may be useful regarding this situation please send to swaninfo@swansociety.org.
Martha Jordan
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, Washington 98501-1091
Internet Address: www.wa.gov/wdfw
LEAD POISONING SUSPECTED IN RECENT SWAN DEATHS
BELLINGHAM - More than 60 trumpeter swans found dead in the last few weeks northeast of Bellingham appear to have succumbed to lead poisoning, according to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) wildlife biologists.
Although the source of the lead has not been confirmed, the swans may have been poisoned by ingesting lead shotgun pellets that came to rest on lake bottoms and the ground, said Lora Leschner, regional wildlife manager in WDFW's North Puget Sound regional office in Mill Creek.
The dead swans are being collected promptly so that bald eagles do not feed on the swan carcasses and suffer secondary poisoning. Volunteers and wildlife rehabilitators are working with WDFW to recover the dead swans. Lead shot has been illegal for waterfowl hunting in western Washington since 1986 and nationally since 1991. Lead shot still is legal for use by upland bird hunters throughout the state, however.
Although no connection has been established between the use of lead shot by state upland bird hunters and the recent swan deaths, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission already was scheduled to decide in its April 7 and 8 meeting in Yakima whether to phase out the use of lead shot on pheasant release sites where waterfowl are present in significant numbers, to restrict lead only on release sites where problems are documented, or to leave the current regulations in place.
In Canada, hunters have been allowed to use lead shot in many areas until this past year. WDFW wildlife managers have contacted Canadian wildlife officials about the swan die-off and are working to try to determine the chief source of the lead and whether swan deaths have occurred in Canada. If the source of the lead can be found, action can be taken to drive swans away from problem areas.
Lead shot can pose particular risks to waterfowl and other wildlife in wet areas and in areas where upland bird hunters concentrate, such as state pheasant release sites. Swans can become poisoned as they forage in fields or on lake bottoms and accidentally ingest the spent shot. All the dead swans have been examined and show signs of lead poisoning, said Mike Davison, WDFW district wildlife biologist. Several also have been x-rayed, revealing lead shot in their gizzards.
Only one or two swallowed lead pellets are enough to kill a swan, Leschner said. Even if the exposure isn't fatal it can weaken birds and cause them to succumb to other ailments such as aspergillosis, a lung ailment caused by a fungus present on decaying corn and other grain, she added. The dead birds are among a wintering population of about 1,000 trumpeter swans in Whatcom County. Another several thousand swans are present in winter months in Skagit County. Some swans die each year from lead poisoning and aspergillosis; the last large die-off was in 1992, Leschner said.