Toxic Shot Problem Confirmed in Shooting Fields

In 1999, the US Fish and Wildlife Service reported that "mourning doves are particularly likely to ingest spent lead shot."

Ingestion of spent lead shot is recognized as a significant problem due to the harmful toxic effects and high mortality rate among victims. In wildlife, primary and secondary consumption is known to directly or indirectly impact populations through acute or chronic lead poisoning. Primary poisoning is defined as poisoning that occurs after lead shot is ingested from soil or vegetation. Secondary poisoning occurs when predators and scavengers ingest lead shot while feeding on wildlife containing lead pellets.

Dove shooting fields and "hunts" are managed to deliberately attract a large number of feeding mourning doves and keep them on the wing for shooters to target. Typically, plot management schemes are implemented with the principal of planting and conditioning the birds to the fields prior to opening day.

With an average of eight shot shells per kill required to bring down these fast erratic flyers, it is no wonder ammunition deposits in dove fields is a lingering environmental management problem with an accumulative effect. More lead is fired at doves in the first two weeks of the season than is used on all other hunted species combined for the entire year. This effect, as reported in studies, represents a real threat to populations of mourning doves as well as other wildlife populations feeding in the area.

Lead shot ingestion in mourning doves has been well documented in scientific research for more than 50 years. In states which allow dove hunting, pellets are consumed by young, fledged, and adult birds alike. Researchers have observed parent doves feeding lead pellets to nestlings. Gizzards of hunter-killed mourning doves also confirm that the magnitude of the problem persists many miles from shooting tracts, even in lightly hunted areas.

The numbers are staggering; it is estimated that millions of mourning doves consume lethal amounts of lead shot per year in the United States. Studies confirm the histological findings and toxicologic concentrations in lead-poisoned mourning doves contribute to a higher mortality rate...even after the shooting season is over.

 Click here for Review of Environmental Impact of Lead Shot and Sinkers.

Note: Scientific data, research and studies were compared and compiled from multiple sources, including but not limited to: United States Fish & Wildlife Service, United States Geological Survey Division, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Ecology & Management of the Mourning Dove, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Nature Publishing Group, Journal of Environmental Research, Canadian Wildlife Services.