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USGS National Wildlife Health Center necropsy and contaminant results for bald and golden eagles collected in 8 States from January 1, 2014, through December 31, 2017 to determine cause of illness/death and lead, mercury, and anticoagulant rodenticide exposure

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) measured environmental contaminants in bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) to evaluate dietary exposure to lead, mercury, and anticoagulant rodenticides (AR), which was identified by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a priority issue of concern for the Mountain Prairie Region 6. Carcasses of bald eagles (n = 172) and golden eagles (n = 142) collected from North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas between 2014-2017 were assessed for cause of death and liver lead, mercury, and AR levels. Trauma, electrocution, and lead poisoning were the 3 leading causes of death, affecting 51%, 21%, and 20% of eagles, respectively. Trauma was the leading cause of death for both species, while lead poisoning was the second leading cause of death for bald eagles (31%) and was only diagnosed as the cause of death in 7% of golden eagles. Elevated lead levels within the range of subclinical or clinical poisoning (>2 mg/kg wet weight) were present in 25% of eagles tested, including 36% of bald eagles and 11% of golden eagles. No association was detected between lead exposure and trauma, electrocution, or infectious disease. Mercury levels were considered high (>80 mg per kilogram dry weight) for only 2% of bald eagles and no golden eagles. Brodifacoum was the most common AR detected, present in 56% of eagles, including 70% of bald eagles and 39% of golden eagles. However, death was not directly attributed to AR toxicosis in any case.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date May 31, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date May 31, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
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Identifier USGS:6351b899d34e47431c15dc9d
Data Last Modified 20230420
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 37ae69c9-8711-4014-bdf2-a093b8ac366a
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -116.0513,37.0,-94.617,49.0
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 990fb14e4437480c90b5e4416f9ec123db9ff2653cf423605f7880645a97fac2
Source Schema Version 1.1
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