Adult female Condor 409 at her nest site in Zion National Park/NPS, Venkat Sundaram
Editor’s note: The following is an unedited release from the National Park Service.
Condor program personnel monitoring the pair at Zion National Park have verified the presence of a chick, but recent events have everyone on high alert. Biologists from The Peregrine Fund, the nonprofit conservation group responsible for releasing and monitoring condors, began noticing last week that the male, Condor 337, was exhibiting odd behavior. Instead of routinely traveling to the feeding grounds to find food for his family, he had become sedentary. The biologists went to his location to take a closer look and found him sick and in need of care.
Initial assessments after capture revealed that the 16-year-old male was lethargic, dehydrated, and severely emaciated. A field blood test revealed elevated levels of lead in the bloodstream, so the bird was given supportive care, fluids, and chelation treatment to help reduce dangerously high lead levels. Despite best efforts to stabilize his condition, Condor 337 died the next day. Authorities from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were notified, and the body is being transferred to pathologists who will determine cause of death.
Meanwhile, biologists are monitoring the chick and its mother to determine whether or not they might be in danger, but so far, they appear healthy. The chick is estimated to be old enough to maintain body temperature, and that may allow the female to find enough food to feed them both. Cooperating agencies, including The Peregrine Fund, Zion National Park, Utah Division of Wildlife resources, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are hoping that this will be the first condor chick hatched in Utah to join the wild population.
Lead poisoning is the leading cause of diagnosed death for condors in northern Arizona and southern Utah. Programs are in place to reduce the presence of lead from big-game hunting in the fall. The current lead poisoning case, however, has occurred in summer, and it highlights the little-known fact that gun-killed animals other than deer and elk can poison condors. Lead used to dispatch any animal, domestic or wild, whose remains might be left in the field, can poison scavengers.
Officials are asking for the public’s support in using non-lead ammunition to dispatch domestic stock, harvest game animals, or when shooting varmints or small game. An alternative is to simply remove the remains of animals shot with lead-based ammunition from the field. For more information on non-lead ammunition, see www.huntingwithnonlead.org. And don’t forget, if you plan to hunt big-game in the southern Utah hunting units next fall, Utah Division of Wildlife is offering coupons for free non-lead ammunition.
Comments
Disgusting - a direct mankind-related effect.
Some premium for all copper bullets but not substantiall, especially for hunting where someone might shoot a dozen rounds vs hundreds at a range. I don't hunt so I don't know the relative stopping power but assuming there aren't other issues I could see requiring all copper bullets for hunting and maybe eventually ranges as well.
I would guess that most hunter aren't aware of the vulnerablilty of lead to scavengers.
From the California Department of Fish & Wildlife site:
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Phase 1 - Effective July 1, 2015, nonlead ammunition will be required when taking Nelson bighorn sheep and all wildlife on CDFW lands.
Phase 2 - Effective July 1, 2016, nonlead shot will be required when taking upland game birds with a shotgun, except for dove, quail, snipe, and any game birds taken on licensed game bird clubs. In addition, nonlead shot will be required when using a shotgun to take resident small game mammals, furbearing mammals, nongame mammals, nongame birds, and any wildlife for depredation purposes.
Phase 3 - Effective July 1, 2019, nonlead ammunition will be required when taking any wildlife with a firearm anywhere in California.
Existing restrictions on the use of lead ammunition in the California condor range remain in effect while implementation proceeds.
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Current regulations prohibit the possession of lead projectiles with a firearm capable of firing such projectiles when hunting for big game or nongame species within the California condor range.
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Here in Utah, many gunners have greeted this as just another plot by the United Nations and Obama to deprive them of their "liberties."
After all, the Patriots of the Revolution used lead bullets, so lead must be protected by the Second Amendment. Right? And just think of all those old Western novels in which the bad guy falls in a "hail of lead." Somehow, "a hail of copper" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
Besides, who need those condors anyway. They just stymie development thanks to that Endangered Species Act. Government overreach all the way!
Really? Who are these gunners? Show us where some Utah "gunners" have blamed this on the UN.
Then hunters should not be using them.
Well, let's see, here's just one example of stuff being forwarded back and forth among some Utah patriots:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/10/robert-farago/u-n-ban-lead-ammu...
A couple of years ago, this was a very hot topic, in of all places, gatherings in the church parking lot on Sundays for a few weeks. Utah has its own brand of extreme extremism. It's driven by such authors as Cleon Skousen and Glen Beck among others. You about have to live here to understand it.
Quite a stretch Anon - What I see in your article is someone (rightfully) claiming the UN wants to ban lead ammunition. And, contrary to your articles author, there is nothing in the UN proposal that limits the ban to birdshot. The (Infowars) article isn't blaming anybody for anything. Merely pointing out a fact.