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Article: Testing for toxins ON THE FLY; Scientists are heading to treetops to learn what baby eagles can tell us about environmental toxins. They hope to connect the dots about how some chemicals move through the food chain.(NEWS)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- May 25, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: TOM MEERSMAN; STAFF WRITER
CORRECTION PUBLISHED 05/27/09: The last name of a scientist was misspelled in this story about baby eagles. His name is Jim Spickler.
Bill Route squinted through binoculars at a huge eagle's nest in the boughs of an ancient silver maple along the St. Croix River. A National Park Service ecologist, Route was looking for eaglets of just the right age to pluck briefly from their scenic home. Their blood and feathers would tell him what toxins lurk in the surrounding aquatic systems, from lead to mercury to old 3M chemicals.
As top predators in the area, eagles are a "sentinel" species, Route said. "We're using the ...