THE GOLDEN EAGLE did not fly, even when Hannah Nikonow pulled over, climbed out of her car and approached the bird on a cold January day. As she closed the 10-foot gap between them, it drooped its head and clenched its talons, clearly distressed but incapable of moving. Nikonow threw a blanket over its head, placed it in her car and called Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Then she drove to the Wild Skies Raptor Center in Potomac, Montana.
There, tests revealed the bird had 130 micrograms per deciliter of lead in its blood. Even tiny amounts of lead can be harmful to eagles, but levels above 60 micrograms per deciliter are considered clinical poisoning. Biologists administered chemical flushes to wash the lead away, but the bird died nine days later.
Nikonow encountered the eagle in the Garnet Mountains of western Montana, a place teeming with wildlife year-round and, in the fall, hunters like herself. She grew up hunting in Worland, Wyoming, and switched from lead to copper ammunition in college after she learned about the dangers lead poses to wildlife. The eagle was likely poisoned while eating a carcass killed with lead. “I can change myself, but if everyone else is still using lead … these animals are going to die,” she said.
The debate over the use
