In the world of condor conservation, lead ammo is the enemy. The toxic metal shatters through the wound channel, poisoning condors that eat game left behind by hunters or ground squirrels shot by ranchers.
Lead is the number-one threat to the endangered scavenger's survival in the wild. For the team of biologists at Ventana Wildlife Society, legislation banning lead bullets across California can't kick in too soon.
That's why Ventana Wildlife Society is gathering signatures at Change.org. AB 711, signed into law in 2013, will prohibit the use of lead ammunition statewide—but not until July 2019. The petition urges the California Fish and Game Commission to pull the deadline forward to 2017.
"Despite numerous testimony that an earlier date is feasible and less burdensome to wildlife conservation, the Commission now proposes waiting until the very last day!" the petition reads.
From an October 2014 Weekly cover story:
Even a fingernail-sized fleck of lead can be enough to paralyze a condor’s digestive tract. “Lead is evil. It kills them really slow,” [VWS Senior Wildlife Biologist Joe] Burnett says. “They’re hungry, but they can’t push food through.”
What follows: severe dehydration, malnutrition and neurological shutdown.
In giving AB 711 such a long grace period, officials were responding to hunters' concerns it would take a while for the industry to catch up to a sudden demand for nonlead bullets in California.
The six-year delay is meant to let ammo manufacturers ramp up production of alternatives, but one group says that’s still not enough time.
[Last September], the National Shooting Sports Foundation released a report concluding AB 711 could seriously suppress California hunting. The report finds gaps between supply and projected demand for a number of gauges, particularly rimfire—bullets that kill the varmints condors love to eat. For those targets, the non-lead option is almost always copper.
The VWS petition aims to reach 2,500 signatures by March 25.
(2) comments
Can someone explain how the physiology of a condor and a buzzard are different? Why do buzzards thrive in the area with all bullets being lead? For that matter what about every other animal that eats carrion? Coyotes and bobcats are thriving, and they are far more likely to be eating an animal that has been shot with a lead bullet that the handful of coddled condors.
To me the evidence of lead from bullets is anecdotal, I believe there has been 1 or 2 cases where a pig carcass had .22 caliber bullets in it and a condor was suspected to be eating on it.
Seems like the condors are also eating up anything metal, wire, bolts, etc. that are far more likely to be causal than the rare incidence of lead bullet ingestion.
I mean do people think the habitat is a war zone with bullets being sprayed at every animal? Really? That's why condors are going extinct? That's what all this money dedicated to their preservation has come up with? Grasping, self preservationist science to get more grants is far more likely.
Also, how much lead occurs naturally in soil? Condors eat dead animals lying in the dirt and ingest the dirt when eating. Again, back to buzzards, they seem to be fine.
I say this knowing it's academic as urban voters listen to environmentalists and drink their kool aid when told to.
God forbid we actually determine that the condor might just be a relic of evolution. I guess then some biologists will need another cause to preserve their days hanging out in Big Sur.
Lead poisoning due to fragmented lead bullets in large game waste is a particularly big problem for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices; lead waste is not as much of a problem for other avian scavengers such as the turkey vulture and common raven.[ Thacker, Paul D.; Lubick, Naomi; Renner, Rebecca; Christen, Kris; Pelley, Janet (2006). "Condors are shot full of lead". Environmental Science & Technology 40 (19): 5826.]
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.