In late November, two hikers in the Black Hills National Forest reported a bald eagle in distress. A volunteer team with the Black Hills Raptor Center set out to recover the bird, but later found it dead.
Maggie Engler is the Executive Director of the Black Hills Raptor Center. She says the eagle's liver was sent in for testing at the North Dakota State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab.
"We received word on Friday that the bird had a toxic level of lead in its system," said Engler. "The scale that they used is parts per million, and anything over ten parts per million with the test that they used would be considered dangerously high and potentially lethal. And this bird had 24 parts per million in its body."
Eagles and other wildlife can experience lead poisoning when they inadvertently consume lead fragments left behind in gut piles by hunters using lead ammunition. Lead can also enter the food chain via anglers using lead tackle.
Engler says hunters can prevent unintended lead poisoning by switching to non-toxic ammunition, such as copper bullets, or by burying gut piles after they finish harvesting game.
"The ground might be frozen during hunting season and so that's not always terribly realistic," said Engler. "The other thing you can do is choose to hunt with non-lead ammunition. This is something we've been doing with waterfowl in our nation in excess of 25 years. It's a federal requirement. But there is no such national mandate or national legislation for big game hunting. And so it's a matter of personal choice."
In 2022, an eight-year study of lead exposure in bald and golden eagles across 38 states in North America found nearly 50 percent of the birds sampled had chronic lead poisoning. Demographic modeling suggests that the lead levels documented in the study were high enough to suppress population growth in golden eagles by 0.8 percent annually and bald eagles by 3.8 percent annually.
In addition to the federal ban on using lead shot for hunting waterfowl, several public hunting lands in South Dakota require non-toxic shot when hunting small game.
Engler believes voluntary actions are the best approach to reducing lead poisoning in raptors and other wildlife due to the resistance she's witnessed with mandates.
"We know in places where non-lead, non-toxic ammunition has been required, there is tremendous negative pushback and consequences. And there's no need for that. Voluntary is the way to go," said Engler.
"This is a matter of choice," she continued. "It will take us longer to get the majority of people over to using non-lead ammunition, but it is doable. And if we start educating and follow the lead of other states that have done voluntary efforts to promote non-lead, we too can make a difference for the wildlife here in South Dakota."
The Black Hills Raptor Center is part of a coalition led by Backcountry Hunters and Anglers of South Dakota that is launching "Hunt Lead-Free South Dakota." The initiative plans to provide a free box of non-toxic ammunition to hunters with a 2026 deer, elk or antelope-license in the Black Hills Fire Protection District - the same area where the deceased bald eagle was located.
