RHINELANDER, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) -- Lead poisoning threatens eagles around Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.

Wild Instincts Wildlife Rehabilitation center says this time of year they see an uptick in poisoned birds.
The Rhinelander center gets up to 50 eagles a year to treat.

Some come for high lead levels alone, many others come when they are injured from being hit by a car or in territorial fights.

“This year of all the eagles we tested, which is most of them, right now we're running at 96 percent of the eagles have lead poisoning,” said Mark Naniot with Wild Instincts.

That's pretty consistent with a study from the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center.

They say about 90 percent of birds they tested in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa had high lead levels.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service workers published a study in 2012 where they say they found high lead levels in 60 percent of eagles they found dead in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Using special feeding techniques and medicine to help eagles purge lead from their system is often just part of the battle for wild instincts.

“So far we're successful getting the lead out of this guy,” Naniot said as he treated an eagle earlier this month. “Now the biggest thing is going to be whether or not his leg comes back.”

That eagle had been hit by a car, its leg was wrapped up in gauze as a result.

Injuries are often caused in part because of an eagle affected by lead. Naniot said the birds have been shown to act differently or more aggressively when exposed to higher levels of lead.

“You wonder okay were they hit by the car or some other injury because they weren't fully capacitated and weren't able to do what they need to do to get away from a car, get away from a predator,” Naniot said.

This time of year Wild Instincts sees an increase in eagles with lead poisoning.

“The other way that we see it is from rifle bullets during the gun season and that's when we generally see a big spike of eagles coming in is during the rifle season,” Naniot said.

Usually it comes from the birds eating a deer carcass, then ingesting lead themselves. Two pellets can be all it takes to kill the birds.

The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota points to that too, saying there is a seasonal prevalence in lead poisoning in eagles around deer hunting season in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Which is why Wild Instincts encourages hunters to use lead-free ammo, even though Naniot knows knows it can be $10 to $20 more per box.

“If you love our animals and you love the outdoors why not keep it safer?” Naniot said.

The Vilas County Sheriff's office made that switch to lead-free ammo when dealing with deer calls this year.

“That right there can be a big huge improvement as well, so if other counties can follow suit that could be the difference in hundreds of animals,” Naniot said.

It's not just a problem for eagles, but lead ammunition or fish tackle can get into bodies of water and mud. Then it can hurt all types of wildlife.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources already encourages people not to use lead tackle for fishing for that reason.

The DNR suggest people use alternate bullets for deer hunting for human safety when ingesting venison.

Naniot says he thinks a lot of people just don't realize what they're putting into the environment.

He says all of this is preventable.

“It is very disheartening, a lot of people say well there's a lot of eagles out there it can't be that big of a deal, well if you've ever had a bald eagle die in your hands regurgitating this green goo because of all the lead poisoning, you'd probably feel the same way,” Naniot said.