MARQUETTE — Another bald eagle with lead poisoning has been rescued by the Chocolay Raptor Center, but it was a close call.

“We got a call about a bald eagle unable to fly and hanging upside down in a tree in Menominee. (A man) and his family rescued the bird and held it safely until I could get it the next day,” according to a press release from Jerry Maynard, president of the center. “Our exam, and our vets, did not reveal any obvious injury, but the bird was emaciated and dehydrated, with depressed demeanor. We hydrated and hand fed.

“We consulted with two eagle rehabbers with much more experience than we have, and consensus was either West Nile virus or lead poisoning, both of which exhibit a similar mixed bag of symptoms. We made arrangements for the eagle to be admitted to Natural Instincts Wildlife Center and took it there,” he said in the release.

Maynard said Mark (Nanoit) from the wildlife center “immediately ran a blood lead level and it was higher than his instrument could measure, meaning over 65 picograms/dL. Anything over 5 is considered toxic and anything over 20 is considered likely fatal. It is amazing this bird survived as long as it did. Mark immediately started treatment with a chelating agent and hopefully the bird will recover.”

In the release, Maynard said studies in the upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa) have shown that lead poisoning of eagles peaks in late fall and early winter, coinciding with deer hunting seasons in that area.

“Because this bird was observed in August and was observed eating fish near Lake Michigan, it likely was exposed to lead through lead fishing tackle that contaminated the fish,” Maynard said. “The Raptor Center in St. Paul, one of the preeminent raptor care centers in the U.S., documented that 90% of the 120-130 eagles they treat every year have elevated lead levels, and 20-25% have clinical lead poisoning; most die.”

He added: “Both area-wide studies of where the lead-poisoned birds are located, and isotope studies of the poisoning lead compared to lead ammo, confirm that deer hunting using lead ammo is the single-most virulent cause of lead poisoning in these magnificent birds.”

He added: “Please stop using lead in either hunting or fishing gear. Save the eagles and your kids.”