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- cross-posted to:
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We found 410 dead birds collected along 196 km of power lines in four western USA states during 2019–2022. We necropsied these carcasses to test conventional wisdom suggesting that electrocution is the leading cause of death of birds at electrical infrastructure. Of 175 birds with a known cause of death, 66% died from gunshot.
New York Times coverage for those who prefer that to a scientific paper.
So, 116 of the 410 birds where shot. Who is shooting guns near power lines?
A lot of cases they just found bones or a pile of feathers. Those could have been shot, but we don’t know. That’s why it’s important to look at only the ones which were fresh enough to identify cause of death.
As to who: Americans.