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Avian Lead Poisoning
Animal lead poisoning (also known as avian plumbism, or avian saturnism for birds) is a veterinary condition and pathology caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in animal's body. Lead interferes with a variety of body and natural processes. It is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It mainly affects the haematopoietic system. It also affects the sulfhydryl group containing enzymes and also thiol content of erythrocyte. It inhibits the enzyme delta amino levaminic acid dehydrogenase enzyme (ALA) which is present in the red blood cell. It is therefore particularly toxic to young animals, mainly dogs and cattle. As in humans, ''animal lead poisoning'' may be acute (from intense exposure of short duration) or chronic (from repeat low-level exposure over a prolonged period). Acute intoxication can quickly lead to death. Prevalence Lead is now a common environmental pollutant. For th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heavy Metal (chemistry)
upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as metals with relatively high density, densities, atomic weights, or atomic numbers. The criteria used, and whether metalloids are included, vary depending on the author and context. In metallurgy, for example, a heavy metal may be defined on the basis of density, whereas in physics the distinguishing criterion might be atomic number, while a chemist would likely be more concerned with chemical property, chemical behaviour. More specific definitions have been published, but none of these have been widely accepted. The definitions surveyed in this article encompass up to 96 out of the 118 known chemical elements; only mercury, lead and bismuth meet all of them. Despite this lack of agreement, the term (plural or singular) is widely used in s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lead Poisoning In Raptors
Lead poisoning is a significant health issue affecting the raptor population, amongst other species. Without rehabilitation, many raptors will succumb to the symptoms of lead poisoning once affected. While the general public may not know how they are possibly contributing to the problem, nearly 100% of lead poisoning can be prevented if humans paid close attention to their hunting and angling practices. There are two major contributors to these avian species being affected by lead poisoning and they are through hunters using lead ammunition, or through anglers using lead tackles. Exposure to lead When hunters shoot an animal, they often leave the offal and other carcass waste in the woods afterwards. This becomes problematic if the hunter has chosen to use lead bullets. It has been shown that essentially all animals that have been shot with lead contain lead fragments in them. One singular standard 150-grain lead bullet has the ability to kill up to 10 eagles. One study noted that o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agreement On The Conservation Of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds
The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, or African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) is an independent international treaty developed under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on Migratory Species. It was founded to coordinate efforts to conserve bird species migrating between European and African nations, and its current scope stretches from the Arctic to South Africa, encompassing the Canadian archipelago and the Middle East as well as Europe and Africa. The agreement focuses on bird species that depend on wetlands for at least part of their lifecycle and cross international borders in their migration patterns. It currently covers 254 species. Parties Meetings The Parties meet every few years. So far there have been seven meetings: * 7–9 November 1999 in Cape Town, South Africa * 25–27 September 2002 in Bonn, Germany * 23–27 October 2005 in Dakar, Senegal * 15–19 September 2008 in Antananarivo, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the preservation of the Grand Canyon area and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery. Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scavenger
Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding behavior. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming dead animal and plant material. ''Decomposers'' and detritivores complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers. Scavengers aid in overcoming fluctuations of food resources in the environment. The process and rate of scavenging is affected by both biotic and abiotic factors, such as carcass size, habitat, temperature, and seasons. Etymology Scavenger is an alteration of ''scavager,'' from Middle English ''skawager'' meaning "customs collector", from ''skawage'' meaning "customs", from Old North French ''escauwage'' meaning "inspection", from ''schauwer'' meaning "to inspect", of Germanic origin; akin to Old English ''scēawian'' and German ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Condor
The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon area and Zion National Park), the coastal mountains of California, and northern Baja California in Mexico. Although four other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus ''Gymnogyps''. The species is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, and similarly considered ''Critically Imperiled'' by NatureServe. The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Its wingspan is the widest of any North American bird, and its weight of up to nearly equals that of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterfowl
Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which includes over 170 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, geese, and swans. Most modern species in the order are highly adapted for an aquatic existence at the water surface. With the exception of screamers, males have penises, a trait that has been lost in the Neoaves. Due to their aquatic nature, most species are web-footed. Evolution Anseriformes are one of only two types of modern bird to be confirmed present during the Mesozoic alongside the other dinosaurs, and in fact were among the very few birds to survive their extinction, along with their cousins the galliformes. These two groups only occupied two ecological niches during the Mesozoic, living in water and on the ground, while the toothed enantiornithes were the dominant bird ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lead Shot
Shot is a collective term for small spheres or pellets, often made of lead. These were the original projectiles for shotguns and are still fired primarily from shotguns and less commonly from riot guns and grenade launchers, although shot shells are available in many pistol calibers in a configuration called "birdshot", "rat-shot", or "snake shot". Lead shot is also used for a variety of other purposes such as filling cavities with dense material for weight/balance. Some versions may be plated with other metals. Lead shot was originally made by pouring molten lead through screens into water, forming what was known as "swan shot", and, later, more economically mass-produced at higher quality using a shot tower. The ''Bliemeister method'' has supplanted the shot tower method since the early 1960s. Manufacture Producing lead shot from a shot tower was pioneered in the late 18th century by William Watts of Bristol who adapted his house on Redcliffe Hill by adding a three-storey t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Condor De Calofornie
Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus''), which inhabits the Andean mountains. * The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus''), currently restricted to the western coastal mountains of the United States and Mexico and the northern desert mountains of Arizona in the United States. Taxonomy Condors are part of the family Cathartidae which contains the New World vultures, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes hawks, eagles, and kites. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. They both are carrion-eaters and the two groups are similar in appearance due to convergent evolution. Description Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds, the Andean condor being short ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chelation
Chelation is a type of bonding of ions and molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between a Denticity, polydentate (multiple bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom. These ligands are called chelants, chelators, chelating agents, or sequestering agents. They are usually organic compounds, but this is not a necessity, as in the case of zinc and its use as a maintenance therapy to prevent the absorption of copper in people with Wilson's disease. Chelation is useful in applications such as providing nutritional supplements, in chelation therapy to remove toxic metals from the body, as contrast medium, contrast agents in MRI, MRI scanning, in manufacturing using homogeneous catalysts, in chemical water treatment to assist in the removal of metals, and in fertilizers. Chelate effect The chelate effect is the greater affinity of chelating ligands for a metal ion than that of similar nonchelating (monodentate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
