Most Polluted Bird: A Hawk Discovered Near A Waste Processing Plant Is So Contaminated, It’s Flame Retardant

A hawk discovered near a waste transfer station in Canada is so polluted, it is considered to be flame retardant.

A Cooper’s hawk, one of the more majestic birds of prey, humanely captured in greater Vancouver, Canada, is believed by researchers to be the most polluted wild bird ever discovered. It is so contaminated with now-banned flame retardant chemicals that researchers have dubbed it a “flameproof” bird.

The researchers from McGill University in Quebec, while analyzing liver samples taken from birds of prey that had been fatally injured near Vancouver in the province of British Columbia (BC), stumbled across the hawk. When it was analyzed, they were shocked to discover that the bird contained an unheard-of 196 parts per million of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs).

This concentration is 105 times higher than other birds of prey in Vancouver. The hawk is also found to be more contaminated than most birds found in California. Till date, no one has found a living bird with such high levels of pollutant in it, not even at any electronic waste site in China, and that is what is most concerning, pointed out lead author Kyle Elliott,

“We were surprised to see such high levels of contaminants in what I think of as ‘green’ city. We can only hope that because many forms of PBDEs have now been banned and the levels of these contaminants are rapidly disappearing from herons and cormorants in Vancouver, the same will be true for other bird species.”

Now banned, PBDEs were once quite commonly used as flame retardants. The chemical was used to coat everything that needed to be protected from flames. Household furniture, vehicle upholstery and even electronics were routinely coated with the flame retardant until the year 2000. However, owing to their nature, these harmful chemicals continue to be added to landfill sites. The flame retardants have even leeched into the earth and found their way into the nearby rivers, only to be ingested by the animals and birds.

The researchers speculate that the hawk might have ended up being so polluted owing to its diet consisting of starlings, the bird’s most preferred prey, shared Elliot,

“The levels of flame retardants in starlings, a favorite prey of hawks, which nested near the landfill site were fifteen times higher than levels in starlings found elsewhere in Vancouver.”

Though the flame retardant hasn’t killed the hawk, it would have certainly taken a toll on the most polluted bird’s health, lamented the researchers.

[Image Credit | Wikimedia]