Redfeather: Please don't pass on lies. The only studies done were done by Glen Sanderson as a graduate student at the University of Illinois. He found a few ducks that had lead pellets in their craws, along with similar sized stones used to grind seeds to aid in the digestion process. He extrapolated mortality by assuming some facts that were not correct. His preliminary papers for his doctorate were grabbed by the anti-hunting, anti-gun folks and used to ban lead shot for waterfowl. When he completed his research he found that he had made errors in his calculations, and that lead was not proven to contribute additional mortality through ingestion, as compared to ducks wounded that flew away and died later.
THERE IS NO FACTUAL SUPPORT( in academic langauge, that is NO EMPIRICAL DATA SUPPORTING ) THE PROPOSITION THAT LEAD SHOT IS CAUSING UNNECESSARY AND ADDITIONAL MORTALITY THROUGH INGESTION.
I also suspect that the Passenger Pigeon was not shot out by commercial hunters, but rather succumbed to diseases that went undetected and determined because of the poor state of science in that day. Dr. Sam Fadala has written a fine piece that supports the idea that Buffalo were not taken to near extinction by hunters, but rather by diseases brought to the plains by cattle that wandered away from wagon trains. The Buffalo had no natural resistance to these " civilized " diseases, and contracted them from grazing with infected cattle. He bases this theory on the fact that there was just not enough powder and shot taken West to kill the millions of Buffalo that were estimated to have lived before the great migration of settlers occured. At the height of the buffalo hunting craze, the railroads in the West could only access 10 % of the land area where buffalo lived, assuming that hide hunters would be willing to travel up to 100 miles from the nearest railroad and back to kill buffalo and sell the hides. If that mileage is reduced, less of the west was reachable. If not all the lead and powder was used to shoot just buffalo, then even more buffalo would have lived but for diseases.
So, please, all of us have to STOP accepting the myth that hunting has caused extinctions of species. There just is no real proof of any thing of the kind. It is a myth pushed by people who hate mankind, and hate guns and hunting, and who would deny that they were given teeth designed both to grind and eat grains, and grasses, as well as teeth designed to cut and tear meat. We are Omnivores, and that is the reason the human species has been so successful in occupying most of the earth, and rising to the top of the food chain. Denying who we are, and how we are designed for survival helps no one.
