Although California recently banned the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, turkey vultures in the state still have evidence of exposure to the chemicals in their bodies.<\/p>\n
Researchers studied the vultures\u2019 exposure to eight different types of rodenticide in southern California from 2016 to 2021.<\/p>\n
The team found 11% of the birds they studied were exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe presence of rodenticides in the blood of a few individuals is just the tip of the iceberg and demonstrates that these compounds are still out there,\u201d said Miguel Saggese, a faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences and an author of a recent study on the turkey vultures (Cathartes aura).<\/p>\n
Saggese and his colleagues said that these findings may mean that other more vulnerable raptor species like burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia), white-tailed kites (Elanus leucurus) and California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) could potentially be exposed.<\/p>\n