{"id":491,"date":"2020-10-19T12:13:12","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T12:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/?p=491"},"modified":"2020-10-27T12:46:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T12:46:42","slug":"pigeons-lead-the-way-using-feral-pigeons-as-bioindicators-of-high-lead-toxicity-in-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/blog\/2020\/10\/19\/pigeons-lead-the-way-using-feral-pigeons-as-bioindicators-of-high-lead-toxicity-in-new-york-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Pigeons “lead” the way: Using feral pigeons as bioindicators of high lead toxicity in New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.6.6″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.6.6″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.6.6″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.6.6″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

By Jaryd Jones ’22<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve spent just about any time in New York City then you\u2019ve probably seen more pigeons here than almost anywhere in the world. These birds, specifically called rock doves (or \u201crats with wings\u201d depending on who you ask) have come to be a staple in most North American cities due to their long lifespan and their close relationship with humans. However, New York City\u2019s combination of dense city design, diverse food options, and abundance of parks and other green areas makes the Big Apple a haven for these birds, with a population of over 7 million in NYC alone. While pigeons are normally considered a nuisance by tourists and residents alike, urban ecologists have discovered that these dirty birds can be used to better analyze the presence of lead throughout New York City.<\/p>\n

Lead is a public health and safety concern to this day as many old buildings and demolition sites across the city are full of the harmful. While blood levels in human residents of the city have decreased over time, lead is still dangerous at any level of exposure, so it is of the utmost importance to groups like the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to know how much lead is in different locations in NYC. Ecologists at Columbia University analyzed the blood lead levels in 825 pigeons from 13 different NYC neighborhoods over the course of five years. Pigeons spend a majority of their lives not very far from where they were born, so their blood lead levels are a sure indicator of the lead levels in the neighborhood they were found in.<\/p>\n

The scientists organized their data in the context of seasons and neighborhoods. What they discovered was that blood lead levels were significantly higher in the summertime than any other season. This could be due to either lead levels being higher in the summer or pigeons being more active in the summer thus exposing themselves to more atmospheric lead. Scientists also discovered that blood lead levels were highest in birds from the Lower East Side, SoHo, and the Upper West Side. While the average across the city was 12 ug\/dl, in these areas it was almost double that. This makes a lot of sense when considering the fact that these are some of the oldest and the most densely packed parts of the city. Many of the buildings in these areas have been standing since the late 1800s, so they may still have lead in the paint. On top of that, these neighborhoods are consistently the most active parts of the entire city in terms of vehicle and foot traffic. The overabundance of cars and people are bound to have an effect on lead levels in these areas.<\/p>\n

The most jarring part of this study is that these findings correspond with the data from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The only difference is that the Department conducted their study using blood sample from child residents of NYC. What this means is that New Yorkers, both birds and humans, are being exposed to lead from a young age. This constant exposure can lead to serious health problems later on in life for both species, the most prevalent being neurobehavioral disorders. This study shows how widespread the effect of lead can be. It is important that we continue to acknowledge and solve this public health crisis in order to make New York City the greatest city in the world for humans and our winged neighbors.<\/p>\n

Fayme Cai, Rebecca M. Calisi. Seasons and neighborhoods of high lead toxicity in New York City: The feral pigeon as a bioindicator, Chemosphere, Volume 161, 2016, Pages 274-279, ISSN 0045-6535,<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jaryd Jones ’22 If you\u2019ve spent just about any time in New York City then you\u2019ve probably seen more pigeons here than almost anywhere in the world. These birds, specifically called rock doves (or \u201crats with wings\u201d depending on who you ask) have come to be a staple in most North American cities due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urban-ecology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":502,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animaltales.kenyoncip.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}