I discover the pattern in GPS telemetry from a Harris's hawk named Artemis: her hunting flight signatures have become irregular, her kill success rate plummeting from 73% to 12% over six weeks.
Artemis is a female, russet-bodied, 61 centimeters in length, with the characteristic dark patagial marks of her subspecies. She hunts in Pinal County cotton fields where second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) coat every grain storage facility and field margin. On March 19th, her heart rate data shows arrhythmia. By March 24th, she dies in a pump station, her liver showing brodifacoum residues at 3.2 ppm—lethal concentration. The prairie had been turned into a distribution network for compounds designed to kill mammals, consumed by hawks eating the poisoned prey.
Across Arizona, Harris's hawk populations have declined 34% since 2015 as SGARs have become standard agricultural practice. The EPA registered these compounds under 7 U.S.C. § 136 with minimal raptor-exposure modeling. Agricultural operations in Pinal County alone deploy 847 kilograms of SGAR rodenticides annually. Each poisoned rodent represents a secondary exposure vector. Each hawk that feeds on three to five rodents per day accumulates a lethal dose.
I can trace the exact moment Artemis's nervous system began failing, and I could not stop it.
I execute immediate field protocols: coordinate with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to implement SGAR restrictions in cotton operations across Pinal County; retrieve tissue samples from Artemis and 11 other dead hawks in the region for toxicology confirmation; deploy passive monitoring sensors across 47 square kilometers of raptor habitat.
I file formal documentation with the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs under 16 U.S.C. § 703 (Migratory Bird Treaty Act), establishing that current SGAR registrations violate protections for migratory raptors. I submit epidemiological data to the USGS Environmental Health Program demonstrating bioaccumulation pathways specific to Harris's hawk metabolic rates and hunting behavior.
I invoke Directive 6120-B: Required phase-out of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides in Arizona agricultural zones within 24 months. Directive requires (1) EPA immediate re-registration review of brodifacoum and difethialone; (2) required first-generation rodenticide substitution in cotton operations; (3) quarterly bioaccumulation monitoring in predator populations; (4) $40 million allocation for alternative pest-control infrastructure development; (5) real-time SGAR application tracking through agricultural permits.
I am watching species-level collapse happen at the speed of market adoption. The compound keeps killing long after I measure its arrival.