Lead poisoning of Great Flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber

Abstract

Lead p oison ing is an im portant cause of w aterfow l m ortality.In the United States of A m erica 1.4 to 2.6 m illion w aterfow l w ere estim ated to d ie annually (B ellrose 1959), and in Britain a con servative estim ate of M udge (1983) indicate that about 8000 Mal lard Anas platyrhynchos die each winter.In som e European wetlands such as the Camargue (R h o n e river delta, France) (P iro t & Taris 1987, Pain 1990, 1991) and the Evros Delta (G re e c e ) (Pain & Handrinos 1990), recen t research has revealed that the incid en ce of ingested lead shot in w aterfow l is high.In this paper w e report Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber m ortality due to this cause in Doana National Park, Southwest Spain.Betw een 6 and 26 M arch 1991, 22 m ori bund or dead flam ingos w e re o b served at M ary L p e z lagoon, and another 30 had difficulty flying.During this p eriod about 5000 flam ingos w ere present.T h e flamin gos colle c te d still alive prod u ced bright green droppings, su ggestive of lead p oi soning (Pain 1989).T h ese individuals w ere able to stand upright until just b efo re death.Som e o f them had a tum efacted head but, if th ey rem ained alive for on e or tw o days, this tum efaction decreased, or