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Berlin’s only wild White-tailed eagle became a widower at the end of February. His female partner died in the veterinary clinic Düppel at the most common cause of death for the rare birds of prey: lead poisoning. One in four deaths of German’s white-tailed eagle are caused by an overdose of lead in blood, but last winter there have been ten deaths.

For a long time it is known that these cases were preventable. The eagles take over the lead by eating the offal from captured or wounded wild animals. Oliver Krone from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, who directs a collaborative project for lead poisoning of white-tailed eagles, is convinced that with lead-free ammunition the poisoning could slightly be eliminiated. "The research results are clear," he says. On 16 April the IZW will take a new start at a meeting in Berlin, together with the Environmental Policy Research Center of the Free University of Berlin.

Today nearly 600 pairs of white-tailed eagles are breeding in Germany, most of them in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Nevertheless - the species, which in the seventies stood just before extinction, is still vulnerable. That is why conservationists, especially the Conservation Federation (Nabu), are ensuring for the only use of lead-free ammunition made of copper or bismuth for hunting. “In the Veterinary Clinic Düppel we had five white-tailed eagles with lead poisoning at the same time," says Dirk Stoewe of raptor protection of Nabu, "and only one has survived."

To convince the hunters and the munitions industry of the urgency of the problem, however, is a lengthy undertaking. »Jacket bullets with lead kernel are satisfieing the conditions of the hunt simply the best," says Matthias Vogel from manufacturer of ammunition Ruag. Especially for welfare reasons, it was important to use projectiles which have a high density and high ductility. This guarantees a stable flight, and the energy will soon be absorbed in the body of the game so that the animals die immediately. Moreover, the risk of rebounding of the bullit will be reduced – no other material is fulfilling these requirements as well as the highly toxic lead.

However, there has been an alternative lead-free ammunition for all calibers already for many years. In many parts of California one can only hunt with lead-free amunition since July 2008 to protect the Californian condor. The same applies to the Japanese island of Hokkaido, where there lives the giant sea eagle.

In May 2008, it seemed to be like that even in Brandenburg: The reports of the since 2006 ongoing "Lead-monitoring" convinced the country's forest management, and at the second technical discussion with the various interest groups the struggle against the lead nearly seemed to be won.

But then Krone and the directing group of the lead-monitoring got a letter from the German Institut for Testing of Hunting and Sporting Weapons (Deva), financed by munitions manufacturers and hunters. In the case of an accident in Franconia, it says, a hunter had been killed by a bullit that repeatedly was glanced off by trees, so there would still be need for conversation with the industry about lead-free ammunition. What was not said in the letter: The accident happened in the mid-nineties, the ammunition was not lead-free and was immediately taken off the market.

Nevertheless, the administration got cold feet and stopped monitoring the project – so now in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, lead-free ammunition is paradoxically prohibited. The State Ministry of Economic Affairs can not come to a decision. "We will open an inquiry into the rebounding performance of lead-free ammunition," says its spokesman, Peter Lohner.

For this order also the Deva itself will apply, whose letter triggered the uncertainty. "We may have another meeting soon," says Helmut Kinský by Deva. It seems that for him there’s no need to get in a hurry.