Lead Poisoning Threatens Endangered Condors

A study conducted by the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been monitoring the health of critically endangered California condors (Gymnogyps californianus). The data collected shows that the rare birds are dying from lead poisoning. Lead from shotgun pellets (left in the carcasses of dead animals such as deer that have been killed by hunters) is poisoning the endangered birds who feed on the remains, jeopardizing two decades of painstaking efforts to re-establish wild populations of the bird.

The rare condors have been in decline for the last 12,000 years. They birds once fed on the many large mammals that inhabited North America during the Pleistocene era.

But since many of the species on which they fed have long ago declined or gone extinct, the condor population receded to the Pacific coast where they could feed on whale and seal carcasses.

But whaling and fur hunting further reduced their food supply and by the early 1980s there were only about a dozen birds remaining. All wild birds were captured and intensive captive breeding efforts were undertaken.

Find out more:

• Rare Condors Being Poisoned by Bullets in Their Food, Study Confirms (National Geographic)
• The Big Stir Surrounding A Pair of Birds in Big Sur

Photo © SZMurlo / Wikipedia.