It is also bio-accumulative. Similarly to how the eagle was also one of the worst hit birds by DDT. It isn’t just them directly eating birdshot in other birds bodies. It is fish and smaller birds eating stray lead bits in ponds and the grass, then they get eaten, then those animals get eaten by the eagle. Because of how much prey a predator eats over their life, each time you go up one level of the foodchain each of these toxins (lead, DDT, mercury for fish, etc.) can get over 10x higher in concentration.
It is also bio-accumulative. Similarly to how the eagle was also one of the worst hit birds by DDT. It isn’t just them directly eating birdshot in other birds bodies. It is fish and smaller birds eating stray lead bits in ponds and the grass, then they get eaten, then those animals get eaten by the eagle. Because of how much prey a predator eats over their life, each time you go up one level of the foodchain each of these toxins (lead, DDT, mercury for fish, etc.) can get over 10x higher in concentration.
Ugh yeah good point. Real canary in a coalmine stuff ecologically speaking.