Fig 1.
Known diameter of lead spheres in relation to their apparent size on a micro-CT scan.
Mean diameter D (mm) of ten batches of lead spheres injected into domestic fowl carcasses, derived from their measured mean mass and estimated volume, in relation to the apparent mean diameter AD of the same batches of injected spheres derived from their volume and estimated from the number of radio-dense CT voxels per sphere. The solid line shows the relationship expected if the two diameter estimates were equal. The dashed line shows the regression of D on AD constrained through the origin, D = 0.724AD.
Fig 2.
Micro-CT slice through a pheasant carcass.
This shows a whole shotgun pellet, a small metal fragment and a probable bone fragment. Note the obvious blooming artefact effect around the shotgun pellet.
Fig 3.
Known mass of lead spheres in relation to their apparent size on a micro-CT scan.
Measured mean mass M (mg) of ten batches of lead spheres injected into domestic fowl carcasses in relation to the mean apparent diameter AD (mm) of the same batches of spheres derived from CT images. Both axes are logarithmic but the values shown are not transformed. The line is the ordinary least squares regression fitted to the log-transformed values was loge(M) = 0.823 +3.352 loge(AD).
Fig 4.
Three-dimensional plots locations of pieces of metal in pheasant carcasses.
This shows the locations of metal shards (black circles) and whole or near-whole shotgun pellets (red circles) in the carcasses of eight pheasants. The sizes of the plotted symbols are not to scale. The axes are in millimetres. The grid on the base of each diagram shows 50x50 mm squares.
Fig 5.
Size distribution of small metal fragments.
Frequency distribution of the estimated diameters D of small metal fragments <1 mm imaged in micro-CT scans. Bars show the proportions of 312 fragments in each 0.1 mm size class. No fragments in the range 1–2 mm were detected.
Fig 6.
Cumulative mass of ammunition-derived lead in relation to fragment diameter.
Cumulative mass (mg), estimated from CT voxel counts, expected to be ingested by consumers eating meat from each of eight pheasants in relation to the consumers’ potential rejection threshold based upon fragment diameter (mm). We assumed that all fragments smaller than the threshold would be ingested by the consumers and all fragments larger than the threshold would be rejected. The result for each of the pheasants we sampled is represented by a coloured line. Both axes are logarithmic but the values shown are not transformed.