Lead poisoning affects local swans, causing death and illness
By Sabrina Artusa
Residents across the county are noticing swans straying from their habitats, wandering onto roads, drive-ways and parking lots, often disheveled and disoriented.
Lisa Jaeger, who runs an animal rescue business, has already picked up six swans this year, a number she says is above normal. In fact, Jaeger was relocating a swan that was found on 25A only hours before her phone interview with TBR News Media. In her ten years of running her business, Jaeger said she has never noticed such an influx of displaced, sick or even dead swans.
“It is very bad. One of them we found dead on the beach on Shore Road” Jaeger said. “It’s horrible. It’s just horrible.”
Swans are extremely territorial creatures and after mating, reside in one area for the rest of their lives. They may leave that area if pushed out after fighting with another swan or if they are confused and unable to navigate back. Lead poisoning is the likely cause.
“[Lead poisoning] is very common,” Adrienne Gillepsie, wildlife rehabilitator at Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays. “Every single swan that we admit to this center, and we get a lot, has lead poisoning.”
Jaeger frequently travels to the rescue center to drop off swans, if they have room. The Evelyn Alexander Rescue Center is the only wildlife center in Suffolk County that has a large waterfowl pen. Other centers have smaller pens and are only capable of taking a few waterfowl.
Lead poisoning affects the swans’ central nervous system and can cause the swans to neglect their grooming, becoming dirty and odorous as a result. They can become sluggish and confused or lose control of their legs and wings and become grounded. When this happens, the swan may try to eat dirt or sand, compounding their sickness.
“If they don’t get treated, it is a death sentence and it is very, very slow. They are uncoordinated, they can drown, they get hit by cars…they slowly just go downhill because they don’t have that medicine or treatment,” Gillepsie said.
Gillepsie estimated that when she started 12 years ago, only around half of swans that were brought in had lead poisoning; now, she said it was essentially a guarantee that a bird would show high levels of lead when given a blood test.
Gillespie and her team administer a treatment called chelation therapy, a 5-day treatment that flushes the toxic metals from the swan’s system. They administer dimercaptosuccinic acid to extricate the heavy metals. This treatment is repeated until lead levels are low enough for the swan to be released.
Swans must be returned “exactly where they came from.” They are invasive and aggressive, so relocating them is problematic not only to other swans, but also to the surrounding ecosystem.
The cured swans return to their nest site, ingest the same contaminated vegetation or lead shots. Gillespie said they regularly get “repeat offenders”.
Other birds like hawks, owls, loons, ducks, and canadian geese can also get lead poisoning, but not as frequently as swans.
Lead shot and pellets were outlawed in 1991. The sale of lead fishing sinkers under one-half ounce or less was banned in New York in 2002 as it was the leading cause of death for the common loon.
