OCTOBER 12, 2007 Lead From Carrion Killing Off Calif. Condors

By KARL VICK the bloodstream far more effi ciently Some want Washington Post Staff Writer than any toy coated with lead paint. to ban lead Scientists have seen a condor drop out bullets in LOS ANGELES -- When the dairy of the sky dead from lead poisoning, condor habitat. The rare birds farmers around Bakersfi eld, Calif., and they have recorded blood lead are being see the white Dodge pickup truck concentrations in sick birds 40 poisoned with the brown logo of the U.S. Fish times the level considered toxic in after eating and Wildlife Service on the door, humans. The evidence, including animals that they know it’s time to bring out their striking increases in those lead have been shot by hunters. dead. readings during deer-hunting season, (By Ken Bohn stirred the California legislature this -- Associated The biologists come by every couple summer to pass a bill that would ban Press) of weeks to collect the bodies of lead ammunition in condor habitat. stillborn calves and haul them to walk-in freezers strategically The measure awaits the signature of positioned around the state. Then, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), But the condors are dying again. in the dark of night, they drag the who hasn’t indicated whether he will Worldwide, the total population of bovine corpses into clearings visible sign it. Schwarzenegger put a picture condors has risen from just 22 a at dawn from the heights fl own by of the condor on new quarters that quarter-century ago to 306 today, California condors, a species that symbolize California. But he also about half in zoos. But of the 135 has battled back from the brink of fi red a member of the state Fish and released into the wild in California extinction but is not yet trusted to Game Commission who irked the over the past two decades, 51 have feed itself. gun lobby by appearing to promote died there. Last year it was two the ban. The massive birds now fl y, nest and steps forward and one step back: reproduce reliably outside zoos. But “The science is irrefutable. There Fourteen condors were released; left to plan their own meals, they isn’t a shadow of a doubt that lead seven perished. will swoop down on the carcasses from ammunition is the leading cause Scientists cannot determine precisely of animals killed by hunters and, of death and illness in the California how many of the deaths resulted in gobbling the carrion feast, ingest condor,” said R. Judd Hanna, the directly from lead, but the mounting chunks of the bullets that scientists fi red commissioner. He added: “Lead evidence -- a recent study indicated now call the most persistent threat was already identifi ed as a problem that 90 percent of condors in Arizona to the reestablishment of California in 1987 when the last of the wild tested positive for lead during this condors in the wild: secondhand condors were captured. It should year’s hunting season -- motivates lead. have been outlawed then, but with a relatively simple government the birds out of the wild they had intervention aimed at scaling back In the belly of a 25-pound bird, a stopped dying.” .308-caliber round leaches lead into a remarkably elaborate one. In the 40 years since the condor was included on the fi rst offi cial list of unproved and the alternatives more that met the federal ban has caused endangered species, the effort to expensive for hunters. advocates of the California measure revive it has soaked up more than $30 to proceed with caution, making a million while making literal the term “Hunting should not be a sport forensic case to justify restrictions “nanny state.” In the 1990s, condor for the rich and famous, as it was on behalf of the condors. chicks were nurtured by zookeepers during feudal times,” said NRA wearing hand puppets designed to spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. Indeed, the Aug. 27 state game resemble adult birds. State Rep. Pedro Nava (D), who commission meeting had the feel of a sponsored the bill, noted that the trial. Witnesses testifi ed about seeing Today, biologists monitor condors NRA supports “Project Gutpile,” a condors, “their crops full,” feeding in the wild by radio and Global hunting movement formed to “get on a pig shot by a hunter on June Positioning System transmitters the lead out,” and that it awarded 25. A professor of environmental punched into the skin of their wing. a “Golden Bullseye” this year to toxicology said that the following But the most elaborate effort remains a maker of copper bullets. His bill day, two of the birds -- numbers 306 the feeding program of dead calves, aims to make those rounds more and 318 -- were trapped and sampled. sometimes leavened with a few affordable through a voucher system Isotope readings on the lead in their rabbits or an occasional sheep. funded by private donors. stomachs matched readings on ammunition sold nearby. “We can’t get them off the subsidy, “Vouchers would be a great idea for so to speak, until there’s clean food a hunter, but as a store owner, there’s Robert Riseborough, who chairs out there for them,” said Cynthia no way,” said Joe Schraff, a sales an expert committee advising the Stringfi eld, former chief veterinarian representative at Second Amendment commission, said the danger from at the Los Angeles Zoo, where sick Sports in Bakersfi eld, which stocks eating the same meat was greater condors are treated for lead at “levels few copper rounds. “As an employee, than the danger from lead paint on that would kill a golden eagle.” I’ve got a family. I’ve got a house. any recalled toys. Now my whole job’s at risk. So this “These birds are tough,” she said. affects the whole food chain now.” “Lead has been recognized as hazard “They’ve been around since the to people since Roman times,” Pleistocene, and they hang around In 1991, the federal government he said. “This is no more an anti- for a reason.” banned lead shot for waterfowl hunting move than the ending of hunting, prompting objections that wine goblets made of lead was an The National Rifl e Association is were similar, but even angrier, than anti-drinking measure.” mobilizing members against the those that California’s proposal has bill, calling the link to lead ammo faced. Stringfi eld said that the wrath