Kill an eagle? yes. as far as lead toxicity goes, yeah. so here s the plasma sample. reporter: travis wilcoxen is chairman of the biology department at nearby millikin university, and he s on the raptor center board. he and nuzzo decided to start testing all the birds brought in. some of the birds that really started to catch our eyes were birds that do not scavenge. these were birds that actively hunt live prey, like cooper s hawk and the eastern screech owl. we definitely see a lotof lead in these guys. reporter: they were surprised to find that a third of the raptors they treated, like these cooper s hawks and screech owls, showed high levels of lead. so they decided to test the birds they prey on, like pigeons and robins. they found alarming levels of lead there, too. to us that said there s something in the environment that these birds are exposed to, likely in these urban settings. we re probably exposed to that, too. this might be a record for us reporter: a g
Of prey. she was a juvenile, literally inoisaying in a guyill s guttern raptor center, the goal is to get every bird back into the wild. good job! some will never leave. she had multiple issues, so, but lead was one of those issues. it s a male. reporter: others aren t as lucky. it s hard to see something so powerful, majestic, become so weak and helpless. just make sure there s nothing broken. reporter: 38 bald eagles have been brought in since 2018. we re going to check for any lead fragments. reporter: half have shown alarming levels of lead. eight died from lead poisoning. three died this march alone, including one the day before our visit. eagles and vultures are scavengers, cleaning up what nature leaves behind. they feast on the remains left by hunters. but there s just a little bit of that lead from that ammunition in there, and that s where the eagles get it from. that s where the vultures get it from. alas oneis enough toething