2013-05-22 10:57:18
In the center of the Iberian Peninsula, in the province of Ciudad Real, is the Tablas de Daimiel National Park, one of the few places in the world where water, a product of the natural overflow of rivers, floods a large area. extension of interior land. Water favors the development of a unique aquatic ecosystem in which numerous birds find refuge and rest on their long migratory journeys.
The place was famous for centuries, a fame enhanced by the interest of nobles and kings who were fond of hunting. The proof of this is that the first known reference to the place was written, in the year 1325, by the Infante Don Juan Manuel in his “Book of the Hunt”. In 1575, Philip II gave orders that the place “be kept very well,” both for the beauty of the landscape and for the abundance of prey, especially birds, whose hunting was one of the favorite hobbies of the monarch and his court. . For the nobles of those times, the fashion consisted of hunting using the art of falconry, that is, using birds of prey, falcons and goshawks mainly. However, by then there were rudimentary firearms capable of firing a load of shot.
Lead shot are small balls of this metal that, fired in groups from a shotgun, impact the prey causing multiple wounds. The first shot was manufactured by hand until 1782 when the British Willian Watts, according to legend, dreamed of a new way to produce lead shot in industrial quantities. The method consisted of dropping drops of molten lead from a great height so that, as they cooled during the fall, they acquired a spherical shape. High buildings still remain from those factories, such as the Torre de los Perdigones in Seville, 45 meters high, built in 1890.
Thus, for several centuries, lead in the form of shot has been spread throughout natural spaces throughout the world, especially in places where there is a great abundance of birds, as is the case of the Tablas de Daimiel National Park. Although hunting has been prohibited there since 1959, the history of this wetland, now integrated into the “Wet Spot” and protected as a Biosphere Reserve and Special Protection Area for Birds (ZEPA), has been linked since ancient times to the hobby. By hunting.
Today, in the Tablas de Daimiel there is an enormous multitude of red ducks, shoveler ducks, purple herons, gray herons, egrets, martinets and many other species that find refuge and rest among the large expanses flooded by the fresh waters of the Guadiana River and the brackish waters of the Gigüela. There, protected by a mosaic of islands populated with reeds, reeds, bayuncos and castanets, birds arrived for centuries in thousands from the most remote places on the planet. Until 1959, when hunting was prohibited, many of the birds were shot down under a hail of lead. A good part of that lead, in the form of shot, still remains at the bottom of the ponds and in the places near the old hunting posts.
Don Rafael Mateo Soria, Researcher of the Wildlife Toxicology Group, Institute for Research in Hunting Resources and Professor at the University of Castilla La Mancha, has carried out in recent years various studies on the toxicology of lead and mercury in organisms, especially in the birds of the Tablas de Daimiel. Birds usually ingest small stones that they then store in their gizzards and use them as a grinding wheel to break up the plants they ingest. Unfortunately for them, they confuse the pellets with pebbles and do not hesitate to ingest them. As a consequence, the pellets wear out in the gizzard and a poisoning process begins that has disastrous effects on the health of the animals and, of course, the people who eat them.
I invite you to listen to the interview on “Lead Shot Ecotoxicology” in this episode of Talking with Scientists.
References:
The Parque de las Tablas de Daimiel
Tablas de Diamiel National Park
Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente in the Tables of Daimiel I
Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente in the Tables of Daimiel II
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