NEWS RELEASE FROM UTAH DWR
For immediate release

Feb. 22, 2010

Recent condor mortalities used to expand conservation efforts

PHOENIX - After three years without a confirmed mortality from lead poisoning, three California condors have recently died from the biggest challenge to the species' recovery. The condors, including a female and her chick from the previous year, were recovered by The Peregrine Fund.

Necropsies to determine the cause of death were performed at the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research. Testing confirmed the presence of lead fragments in the digestive tracts of all three birds. Lead shuts down the condors' digestive system, which leads to starvation, weakness and death.

"While the deaths of a breeding female and her wild-hatched chick are a significant loss, condor conservation has been gaining ground since lead poisoning was first identified as a leading cause of mortality and we began to educate hunters about the effects of spent lead on condors," said biologist Chris Parish, head of The Peregrine Fund's condor recovery operation in Arizona. "But, as the condor recovery program progresses, new challenges have been identified."

The three dead birds had been outfitted with tracking equipment that allowed field biologists to monitor daily movements. In recent years, that radio tracking data has identified increased use of southern Utah as a major foraging area for the flock.

"When we first reintroduced condors to northern Arizona in 1996, the birds primarily foraged closer to home," said Chris Parish. "Now that we have observed the condors expanding their range into Utah and foraging more frequently outside of the local release area, conservation partners are working with Utah and its hunters to reduce the amount of spent lead ammunition available to condors in gut piles and carcasses left in the field."

The Peregrine Fund tries to capture all condors twice yearly to test for lead exposure, the leading cause of condor death. Birds with high blood lead concentrations are treated with chelation therapy to reduce the lead in their system. Condors are scavengers and research in the last five years has proven that they consume tiny fragments of lead in the remains of gunshot animals.

To aid condor conservation, the Arizona Game and Fish Department started a non-lead ammunition outreach program in 2003 to hunters drawn for hunts in the condor's core range. Surveys show that 85 percent of hunters took voluntary measures in 2009 to reduce the amount of available spent lead
ammunition in the condor's core range.

Now the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is implementing a similar program for hunters on the Zion unit in southwestern Utah.

"We've started educating our hunters about the effect that lead ammunition has on condors," said Jim Parrish, nongame avian coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "The next thing we're going to do is give everyone who hunts on the Zion unit a coupon for a free box of non-lead ammunition."

"There's no reason to reinvent the wheel, so we're modeling the Utah program after Arizona's non-lead effort," continued Jim Parrish. "Utah's sportsmen are conservation-minded. We're confident they'll step up to the challenge and that our program, combined with the highly successful program in Arizona, will keep the condor population healthy and allow it to grow."

Condor conservation partners include The Peregrine Fund, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Wildlife in Need, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service.

For more information on condor conservation and non-lead ammunition, visit www.peregrinefund.org or www.azgfd.gov/condor.

I'm perfectly happy to use non-lead ammo as long as someone else is picking up the $30+ difference between lead and non-lead ammo (and I think they should give coupons for at least 2 boxes). California does not give out coupons ...

I am sorry, but this requires a rant. As I understand, Arizona has a multi-billion dollar state budget shortfall, and there are cut-backs for education, police and fire services, etc.
But the buzzard recovery program is on track. Who makes these decisions?
Dabney

quote:

Necropsies to determine the cause of death were performed at the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research. Testing confirmed the presence of lead fragments in the digestive tracts of all three birds.

I don't believe lead was the cause of death and even if so, two birds in four years is inconsequential.

i call bullshit also!
the perigrine fund is the same bunch that
started this lead bullshit in the dakota's
anything they touch now is suspect as far as i'm concerned

It should, I think, be obvious by now that condors are extinct, and are being kept alive on life support. I have never met an ethical hunter who cares a whit about the demise of the California condor. Other animals have left the earth without such outcry, so what's the big deal about condors? They are just big buzzards.

I have lived and hunted in California all my life and I've never even seen a condor.

I have extreme difficulty understanding Mandile's passion on this subject.

As hunters and conservationists I don't think it is our right to say it's okay if a species goes extinct, because I feel that sets hunters up for a lot of blame as people unconcerned about animals and saving them for future generations (which couldn't be farther from the truth about hunters).

I, however, am a firm believer in Darwinism - survival of the fittest. Condors, when compared to turkey vultures, is the weaker of the species. The condor and turkey vulture fill the same niche, but I have yet to hear any problems with the standard turkey vulture. I think funds would be better spent in a preventative approach, spending money to save wildlife habitat so we don't lose more species. My guess is one of the biggest motivators to save the condors is that they seem to be inversely correlated with ease of hunting. The more condors they can get in the wild, the more strict they can make the rules regarding hunting. That is why I am okay with them passing into extinction - because they seem to be one of the first steps at making hunting extinct. I'm just choosing the lesser of two evils.

It’s all a scam. These rats with wings will continue to die of lead poison, even after all lead bullets are gone. The lead is in the garbage these rats eat. It’s not coming from “gut piles” left over by hunters.

I wonder if CA will change our “Condor Zone” in a few years when they see nothing has changed. It’s a f’n joke.

isn't gonna matter much anyway
when the wolves get to utah
there won't be any gutpiles for the birds to die over

Maybe the wolves will eat the condors while they're at it. Wouldn't that be nice "What one do we save." I'll save condors if I can shoot wolves!

It is all BS, complete BS. In California they have banned lead containing bullets in almost the entire state, zones that nobody has seen condors in. It is just another step in taking away our rights to hunt, a step in taking away our guns.

Now they've gone so far here as to say that your sidearm can't be loaded with anything containing lead while you're in the mountains. ummm, yeah, I keep snake shot in mine FOR SNAKES, now they're saying I can't? I predict there will be ugly incidents in the enforcement of all this crap.

As far as the condors go, I do not like the idea of an animal going extinct, however sometimes their living in the wild is not longer a viable option. now their introducing them to areas they aren't found in, and then wanting to change laws and behaviors that affect THOUSANDS of humans (top of the chain) to suit a few animals that aren't supposed to be there.

How many hunters are in CA, 100k+? at 30 bucks a person EXTRA, that would be what, 3mil in cash to upgrade ammo?!

I have been wanting for a while to organize a statewide boycott on hunting, a hunter's strike. send a message to the politicians that just because we don't have a union doesn't mean they can abuse us and take our rights. I've written letters to the editors of two major hunting magazines asking them to organize this. A friend suggested the other day that I actually use the internet and hope it goes viral. a strike in 2011. It'd cost the state millions that I'm sure it can't afford to lose, and we all know that while politicians bow to special interest groups, ultimately they go where the money is.

Red

quote:

Originally posted by Sevens:
Maybe the wolves will eat the condors while they're at it. Wouldn't that be nice "What one do we save." I'll save condors if I can shoot wolves!

Last year, I hunted deer in the Kaibab national Forest which along with the Arizona Strip is considered condor flyway area sowe were asked to voluntarily used monometal bullets. We did, but saw no condors. Big surprise! I've hunted that area six times in the past 30 years, when I was lucky enough to draw a tag and not once have I ever seen one of those overgrown buzzards. Now it is a shame that any species ever went extinct, and I would hate to hear of the condor disappearing forever, but frankly, the efforts involved are just pizzing up a rope. I just do not think there are enough of these birds left in the wild to continue the species.
Well, If I'm lucky enough to draw the kaibab again this year, I'll use the "proper" bullets although they cost me my animal last year. The only decent buck I saw had a bunch od other deer, does and smaller bucks standing behind him and I was afraid that barnes TSX bullet would have gone clean through as they are reputed to do and taken out a couple more deer behind him. Game & Fish take a very dim view of such happenings.
Paul B.

You guys don't get it!!!! KALIFORNIA CONDOR.
Seems to me that lead has been used in the country since the first ship reached our shores and the condor thrived. But now, all of a sudden, lead is bad for the birds.
Lead was blamed for the duck decline but it seems as if loss of habitat was what was taking down the population. During the market days, tons of lead shot was used, look at the punt guns. Since they killed a whole flock with one shot, I guess lead did kill them off.
Now my boolits do not get eaten because they all seem to go through everything I shoot and if a bird wants to dig it out of the ground, it deserves to eat lead and die.

Some questions:
How many gut piles do they have to eat before they get dead?
Do they only get the lead during hunting season?
This is just a bunch of crap.They will continue to change where "0" is,when will they quit this crap.