is one of the world's leading teaching and research hospitals for wildlife and conservation medicine providing state-of-the-art veterinary care for more than 3000 wild animals each year.

The center draws on lessons learned from each patient admitted, to teach the world to care about, and care for wildlife and the environment.

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(water flowing) (dramatic music) >>The bald eagle was one of the most well known and beloved species of wildlife we have in the United States.

In fact, it's power and beauty.

So inspired people that in 1782 the bald eagle was chosen to be the national symbol for the United States of America.

Unfortunately, we haven't treated our national symbol all that well, we've trapped it, shot it, poisoned it, and literally driven it to the brink of extinction.

Especially through the proliferation of the chemical DDT.

We destroyed its habitat and destroyed its ability to reproduce.

But the good news is the bald eagle was one of the greatest conservation success stories we have in the United States.

We have brought the bird back from the brink of extinction and today the population is growing in all states.

We are so excited to be able to see the bald eagle in our skies, where it's been gone for hundreds of years.

That's the good news.

The bad news is there is a new environmental toxin that is threatening our national symbol.

That toxin is lead.

(calm music) There are many sources of lead in the environment but there is only one source that is affecting bald eagles.

And indeed other species of wildlife that is lead from bullet and shot fragments found in animals left in the field by hunters.

Lead is a very soft, very dense metal that has been used for centuries, for many things.

But we now know that its toxic properties make it very, very dangerous.

We have now removed lead from automobile gasoline.

We've removed lead from paint because of the health problems for children.

We now know that many cities with older infrastructure are getting lead in their water supply causing public health problems across the municipality.

Back in 1992, lead shot was actually banned for use in waterfowl hunting because four to 5 million ducks and geese each year were dying from lead poisoning.

As they dabbled in wetlands and picked up the lead shot to use it as grit in their digestive systems.

But lead is still heavily used in the manufacturer a fishing tackle and for ammunition for upland game and big game, and it's still taking its toll.

Now, why all of a sudden is this becoming a problem especially for birds like bald eagles?

Humans have been using lead for hundreds of years to make projectiles, bullets, and shot that had been used in hunting.

Part of the reason for this is the conservation success story for eagles is about the population's recovery, but unfortunately bald eagle population doesn't have a place to live.

The habitat in which bald eagles once lived along large bodies of water.

And the title portions of our major rivers was full of fish.

The bald eagle's favorite food but as that habitat was diminished through development bald eagles have had to move further and further away from major sources of water and major fish sources.

Today, in most parts of their range.

The bald eagle is primarily a scavenger and one of their favorite sources of food are the remains of animals, gut piles, or animal carcasses left in the field by hunters.

Those food sources are contaminated with shot and lead bullet fragments that are tiny little toxic time bombs.

And they're taking their toll on eagles and other wildlife.

Here at the Wildlife Center of Virginia, state-of-the-art hospital for native wildlife, we receive sometimes more than 50 bald eagles in a year.

We have the equipment to quickly and easily test each and every one of those birds for the presence of lead in their bloodstream, as shocking as it may sound, more than 70% of the bald eagles we receive at the Wildlife Center of Virginia have measurable amounts of lead in their bloodstreams.

No amount of lead is safe, but half of that 70% of lead contaminated birds that comes in dies from lead poisoning.

The sad news is this could be completely prevented.

(calm music) >>So lead toxicity, or lead toxicosis, or lead intoxication is when an animal or a person ingests or get exposed to the heavy metal called lead, and this heavy metal affects the general body.

And the general organs and systems and causes generalized weakness and affects the central nervous system.

Birds, and in particular eagles and other scavenger avian species, when they have lead toxicosis, they start showing you initially general weakness.

After the lead gets distributed to other organs, they start showing multiple other clinical signs.

If the brain gets affected.

They kind of starts showing neurologic signs like weakness, seizures, if their muscles start getting weak, then they cannot breathe properly and they start gasping for air.

If the liver starts getting affected, then we can see that their feces start getting really green.

Also lead likes to bind calcium and calcium is highly important for a lot of different cellular functions.

So for example, the heart and different muscles need calcium for contraction.

So the heart cannot pump blood properly and that starts affecting multiple other organs.

So unfortunately the heavy metal lead causes a generalized intoxication that affects multiple organs and systems in the birds.

Lead affect raptors because raptors can be a scavenger species.

This means that they will sometimes eat carcasses out in the field or some organs that they find of dead animals out into the field.

For example, in hunting season, some hunters will be hunting a deer, shooting this deer with lead ammunition, dressing the deer in the field and leaving the gut pile in the field.

Raptor species will come and scavenge in that gut pile.

They will eat these little fragments of lead that are there in this organs, they will consume it.

That'll get absorbed through the stomach, distributed in this raptor species.

And then the raptor will get intoxicated with the heavy metal lead.

So there's multiple ways to treat lead intoxication or lead toxicosis in our wild patients.

There's three major things that we need to make sure when we are treating lead intoxication, the first is we need to make sure that that patient is stable enough and that we're hydrating our patient.

Second, we need to make sure that our patient is in a good nutritional status.

So we need to give nutritional support.

And third, we need to give a medication that will help that animal to eliminate the lead or the heavy metal.

Those medications are called chelators.

(calm music) We use mainly two type of chelators.

One that can be injected into the system and one that can be given orally, and they can consume it fully fluid or we can just give it into a pill to our patients.

These chelators will bind the lead and will help the kidneys to just urinate the lead.

That's the way we treat our patients.

Unfortunately, most of our patients, even with the best care that we can provide, they don't make it because led has all ready affected so much their different systems especially the central nervous system and their heart that even with good fluid therapy, nutrition support, and chelation therapy, they will still die.

So we test for lead here at the Wildlife Center of Virginia, for two main reasons.

One, because sometimes we may not see that an animal is affected by lead because they are not showing clinical signs, but actually they're might be lead in their system.

So we need to make sure that our patients especially those that are scavenge, have no lead in their system because no lead is good lead.

The second is because it's highly important to know what is the impact of lead out there in the environment?

What are the sources of lead?

There's a lot of controversy.

Where is all these led that is out in the environment coming from?

If it's just from paint?

If it's from the batteries?

If it's from spent ammunition?

When we test our patients, we can actually do extra tests to know exactly the source of these lead.

So for the Wildlife Center of Virginia it's not just important to treat and save our patients, but it's also important to collect these data to know the root source of the lead and then try to make new recommendations and educate the public to prevent lead intoxication in wildlife, but also to prevent lead intoxication in the people and public.

(calm music) >>I'm 58 years old.

And I know that I shot my first white tail when I was a sophomore in high school, but I started hunting when I was old enough to walk.

It's just been a part of me.

I was a little unique.

I am one of four siblings in my family that grew up on a dairy farm.

And I was the one that from early age loved to hunt.

And so if they didn't know where I was they knew I was out in the field somewhere.

So every year I teach a senior level Biotechnology class and it's a class where we learn techniques in Molecular Biology, and then we always do research.

And so I like to do one large class research project and also allow students to do individual research projects.

And so for the large class research project, we decided to take on the issue of lead toxicity and especially raptors, our focus and interest was on the bald eagle.

That's kind of a emotional bird for us.

And so we decided that that was going to be our target species for our research.

And we decided that we really wanted to know, is there lead fragments in the entrails, the gut pile, that a hunter will leave behind at a scene.

And we decided the only way to know that is to have access to those gut piles.

So we put out a plea, put posters up around town, had an article in the newspaper, on the radio, on Facebook, social media, on our webpage, trying to find out would hunters actually donate part of their entrails for research?

And we were amazed.

We ended up with 56 intact heart-lung combos from hunters and attached with that sample was some information, what county was the kill?

What was the bullet?

What was the gun?

And so we have a little bit of information about that as well.

So we collected those samples and then took them to the Wildlife Center.

Dr. Dominguez worked with us and we did x-rays of each sample, and then he forwarded those images on to us.

And we enlarged those samples, went to a local veterinary office where we then were able to calibrate the size of those fragments.

And we turned the fragment sizes into cubic millimeters.

And from there we're able to then to assess the amount of lead in each of the heart-lung samples that we had.

We decided that if the fragment was too small we wouldn't even count it.

And so there was a lot more fragments in the heart-lung than what we actually counted.

And we found hundreds of fragments in samples.

And so bullets really do fragment when they pass through internal organs of the white tail deer.

Just the images alone was an emotional response from our students because we knew that scavengers do clean up gut piles.

And just to see that sparkly led throughout the heart and lung of those pictures already communicated the need for education without even doing the math.

But once we started doing the math, it was incredible.

We found out after some research that for a bald eagle of about 3.5 kilogram body size, that 0.2 parts per million is the subclinical level, which means that it starts to show symptoms, but probably is not lethal.

If you go above 0.6 parts per million for that body size then it's when it becomes clinical, which means that they will suffer from the effects of lead poisoning.

Our samples were 30 parts per million and that difference was astonishing to us, which means that when we started doing the math, we found out that some of the heart lung samples would kill multiple bald eagles, just that one sample.

And so that was something that surprised us.

We really didn't expect to find that level of toxicity present.

Interestingly enough, I live on a farm, and one day during the study, I looked out the window and there was a spike buck walking towards our pond.

Normally I would have probably let it go but I decided I'm gonna contribute a sample to the study and get some fresh tenderloin in the same way.

So I shot the buck.

I used a 270, 130 grain bullet, and the buck was angling towards me just slightly when I shot it.

And when I recovered the animal and field dressed the animal, I found the bullet lodged under the skin on the far side.

So I had the bullet and took it back to the classroom, 130 grain bullet.

We then put my bullet on the balance found out that my bullet had lost 40% of its mass.

And we know that that 40% was all in the cavity of that deer.

And so when I field dressed the deer I left behind a significant amount of lead.

I did take the heart and lung and I took the rib cage as well.

And the x-ray of the rib cage is amazing.

When you see the sparkle of lead going as far as 18 inches away from the entry hole I actually went back and took meat out of my freezer when I saw the picture, because I realized that not only did I leave behind lead for scavengers but I had led in my freezer, simply because of the nature of the fragment display that took place.

(calm music) >>The lead poisoning of wildlife from bullet fragments found in wild game is a hundred percent preventable.

All we need to do, is get hunters to voluntarily switch from lead based ammunition to a non-lead ammunition.

This is especially easy for rifle hunters because copper projectiles are now produced and distributed by nearly every major manufacturer of ammunition.

And there's a lot of misinformation out there about this non-lead copper ammunition, but let me set a few things straight.

People say it's dramatically more expensive and it's not as effective as lead.

Well the truth is, as more and more manufacturers have entered the market and the demand for this product is increasing.

The cost differential has gone down.

Today, equivalent lead core and non-lead ammunition are roughly the same price.

And if there is a few dollars difference, honestly, what is the life of a bald eagle worth to you?

One of the biggest myths of all, is that non-lead ammunition is inferior to lead ammunition as far as effectiveness or accuracy.

That's simply not true.

The truth is that non-lead ammunition, copper projectiles are ballistically superior to lead bullets, because lead is a little more dense.

The copper bullet has to be slightly longer while that actually makes it more stable in flight.

And when you talk about effectiveness upon impact the old high school physics principle is there, energy is the mass times the velocity.

If you have 180 grain lead core bullet, 180 grain copper bullet traveling at roughly the same speeds, on impact, they will have precisely the same energy but where the copper bullet is superior.

It doesn't break up.

It retains more than 95% of its weight.

As it passes through the prey animal making it far more effective and far more humane.

(calm music) >>It's quite dangerous for a human to ingest lead due to the negative health impacts lead can have on the human body.

Lead has been banned from gasoline, household paints, faucets, pipes, food cans, and wine bottles.

According to the centers for disease control and prevention, no safe level of lead has been identified.

Children under the age of six are more susceptible to the effects of lead than adults are.

And the symptoms can be quite subtle and have a long-term impact on the child's growth and development.

These symptoms might include things such as speech and hearing problems, problems with maintaining attention and focus in the classroom, and increased behavioral issues.

Adults exposed to lead might experience problems such as hypertension, decreased fertility, and nervous system disorders, such as tremors in the hands and arms, with acute lead poisoning such as inhalation of lead dust or potentially ingestion.

For example, of lead paint around the household signs can include irritation of the eyes, nose, mouth, and throat, or nausea, vomiting, and tremors.

More often the signs of lead ingestion are going to be chronic.

And so they are much more subtle.

And these signs of chronic exposure might include, nervous system disorders, decreased kidney function, and impaired fertility.

It's important for people to understand that lead exposures are a hundred percent preventable and there are steps you can take around your home to prevent lead exposures.

These include washing your hands before you eat, avoiding peeling paint, and talking to your doctor about a simple blood test that can detect elevated lead levels in the body.

(calm music) >>I was aware that lead ammunition was an issue but not to the extent that I am now until Myron Blosser and our students were doing this study.

And I had the benefit of being able to talk to them as they're doing the research and was aware that they were asking for hunters to contribute to the study.

And so I had the opportunity last year to actually donate a heart and lungs to the project and got to find out what the results were as it was going on.

And so that was really, in real time as they were doing the study, I was kind of keeping my ear towards this because I cared on a personal level.

And then finding out that, yes, in fact, the heart and lungs that I had donated had...

I got to see the x-ray and there's fragments throughout and just finding out the distance that it can travel.

It really had a huge impact to me to think about the potential toxicity.

If I had left those in the field to carry on to Raptors.

I've seen, I don't know how many bald eagles where I hunt.

I've seen a golden eagle back there while I was hunting.

And then also, just being concerned about the potential impact that it would have for my family.

I actually, after I saw those x-rays went back and disposed of some of the meat that I would have otherwise eaten in years past, just because I wasn't aware that the off shoulder might have been impacted, and I have young children, I think we have to work together to resolve this because it's the only way that we've made change when it comes to conservation of the environment ever, it can't be one single group that successfully makes a change.

I think we forget our history.

If we don't recognize that hunters have been often on the forefront of environmental change in the past, but it is difficult to steer the ship.

I think especially because hunting is so tied in family tradition, that we have a tendency of hunting the way that we learn to hunt, it's gonna take education.

It's gonna take people's success stories in order for people to make the change I think, at least the conversations that I've had with people, it's hard to get people to change their minds without education.

(calm music) >>While lead poisoning of wildlife is a huge issue.

It's one we can fix.

And there are specific things that you can do, if you happen to be a hunter, the most obvious thing, make the switch to non-lead ammunition.

Look for it, find it, don't wait till the last minute, because sometimes it's not available locally.

But making that switch is a statement that you are an ethical conservationist.

If you happen to be one of those folks that simply will not make the switch to non-lead ammunition or maybe you just can't find it locally, you can still reduce the risk that your lead bullet will indeed poison a bald eagle or other wildlife, simply bury that gut pile, or cover it with brush where avian scavengers can't find it and can't get to it.

That helps a lot.

If you don't happen to be a hunter yourself but you perhaps have friends or family who are, you can give the gift of non-lead ammunition in the same caliber and bullet weight that they might normally use and remove the excuse that they have to avoid trying the new ammunition.

Change is hard for a lot of people but that gift will be perfect to encourage the change and save the life of an eagle.

Certainly one of the best things you can do with any environmental issue is to become informed, understand the issue, and be able to explain it to others.

You can find information on the lead intoxication of raptors and other wildlife at the Wildlife Center of Virginia's website or at many other locations across the internet, gather the information and share it.

A little bit of effort will enable us to fix this problem, conserve our wildlife and make the future better for all of us.

(calm music) (water flowing) >>Funding for untamed is brought to you by.

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