Abstract
American kestrels (Falco sparverius) were given a single acute dose of the insecticide acephate (50 mg/kg), either alone or superimposed on a moderate background level of DDE (35 ppm wet-weight in carcass homogenates). The combined DDE-acephate treatment was chosen to resemble exposure conditions for wild avian predators whose tissues may contain appreciable sublethal accumulations of organochlorine insecticides. Acephate produced similar cholinesterase (ChE) depression in both groups (39% median depression of serum ChE, 25% median brain ChE depression). Predatory vigilance and attack behavior, measured by frequency and speed of responses to a familiar moving prey model, were not altered by acephate administration in either group. Neither DDE nor acephate at these low dosages has appreciable effects on kestrels' responses to a prey stimulus with which they have had extensive prior contact.
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