Now that the chick has been banded, do you know its sex?

They think it is male.

Initial measurements suggest male. The blood work will confirm this later.

Jim C. Spickler
Senior Biologist
Eco-Ascension Research and Consulting
P.O. Box 202, Arcata, CA 95518

How long does it take for the blood work results? Will you let us know if you find any contaminants in his blood too, or do you need to keep it confidential for research purposes?

How long does it take for the blood work results? Will you let us know if you find any contaminants in his blood too, or do you need to keep it confidential for research purposes?


who can explain me what "contaminants" mean ?????


thanks for helping me...


petra

p.g.j.martens@casema.nl

Hi, petra! Contaminants are things like chemicals, poisons, heavy metals and the like that may be in the eagles environment and/or food sources.

Petra "contaminants" are of particular interest to biologist studying eagles in this area because of the former affects and still possible affects of chemicals like DDT which was used as a pesticide in North America (also world wide) and especially in California. Also of particular concern to Bald Eagles is the affect of lead formerly used in shot by hunters of waterfowl.

The unnatural chemicals found in pesticides, herbicides and insecticides and lead can affect the eagles in several ways. Because eagles are preying on animals that ingest these chemicals which are sprayed on crops and leach into water systems the eagles levels of these chemicals can be much higher than found in any one prey. In some cases these levels can kill the eagles (lead is particularly bad for doing this). These chemicals were designed to kill animals (mostly rodents and insects) and in doing so also decreased the amount of prey available for the eagles. Less food means less surviving eagles of all ages and less reproduction. In many cases the contaminants don’t kill the eagles but affect their ability to produce healthy embryos (chicks in the egg) or egg shells too weak to support incubation by adult eagles. So the result was not dead adults but no successful reproduction to keep the population of Bald eagles stable or on the increase.

Laws have been passed to help control the use of the chemicals that have created these issues. Lead has been banned in the making of shot for hunting waterfowl BUT humans have an amazing ability to create new problems because of our drive to create new "materials" and satisfy an ever expanding population that we need to keep an eye through testing of what is going into out habitat. Eagles and other raptors have become a signaling device or what are referred to by many as an "indicator species" as to the quality of a habitat and to a great extent an indicator of the quality of our various habitats.

So the testing of eagles and eaglets for contaminants is important and particularly important in this region of eagle habitat because of its past history and measurable affect.

Sorry for the long (and it could have been much longer) post and for the use of words you may translated but it will increase your knowledge of English. I'm sorry it isn't increasing my knowledge of Dutch. :lol: Bill :)

hallo Bill

i do understand everything you explain to me
thank you very much for it...
i was "agog, inquisitive" to that word

later i've looked in my medical word book and i found about: "contaminanten" is
"boast, brag" who can infected blood trough food and drinking and so give this to the next person...

this is about human beings but i've asked myself or it was about animals to...

and now with your explaination i know its almost the same...

lovely that we can learn from each other...
wat is internet fantastic

thank you again Bill....i know now what that word means.....

till next time
have a nice weekend....

gr. petra

and you don't have to sorry for nowledge dutch...
english is the worldlanguage

dutch is very difficult.....so don't break you're mind about it....
it isn't worth...

p.