By: Andy Dong

Usually, when birds die on power lines, it is because they have been electrocuted. However, bullet shells are now being discovered in carcasses near power lines in Idaho.

New scans conclude that birds are being shot at and killed when they are perched on power lines. It is illegal to do so and studies are being conducted to discover the shooters’ motives.

Birds that died near power lines are assumed to be electrocuted, “Avians found dead along power lines are often assumed to have died from electrocution, especially if their bodies show burns or singeing” says Eve Thomason, who is a wildlife biologist at Boise State University in Idaho.

Thomason and her colleagues did a study where they picked up dead birds near power lines and analyzed them. “Most of them were coming back with bullet fragments in them or shotgun pellets,” Ms. Thomason said. They reported that 66% of the 175 dead birds found were shot.

There have been anecdotal reports of such shootings. But “this is the first time somebody has done a large-scale study at multiple sites to figure out if this is a problem,” said Todd Katzner, a research wildlife biologist at the United States Geological Survey in Boise and one of the study’s authors. “This is way more prevalent than we had previously understood,” he said.

The birds shot were ravens and raptors, and it is illegal to kill these birds according to law. Some birds shot were in danger of going extinct.

Illegal shootings are “an overriding issue that just perplexes the heck out of me,” said Brian Millsap, an ornithologist at New Mexico State University. Dr. Millsap was a collaborator with Dr. Katzner. “There’s just been a ton of work done to get the word out that raptors aren’t the vermin that they were thought to be,” he said.

Lots of birds are dying due to electrocution, and lots of money is being spent on trying to prevent that from happening. However, the shooting of birds means that the blame is being transferred to a whole new group.

New sets of studies are also being done to find out what is causing people to shoot birds. Researchers are also trying to find out more information on the decline of birds.

Sources: Electrocution Isn’t the Main Thing Killing Birds Along Power Lines – The New York Times