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View Full Version : CA Condors dying at increasing rate due to lead poisoning


sd_shooter
06-26-2012, 5:05 AM
Link:
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_20934859/new-study-lead-poisoning-condors-at-epidemic-proportions

California condors, one of the world's most endangered species, are facing lead poisoning from hunters' bullets "at epidemic levels," and will not recover unless further steps are taken to control it, a new study Monday found.

A review of more than 1,154 blood samples taken from wild California condors and tested between 1997 and 2010 found that 48 percent of the birds had lead levels so high that they could have died without treatment in animal hospitals.

So far, even a ban on lead bullets in the birds' habitat appears to have had little effect, the study found.

"Lead poisoning is preventing the recovery of California condors," said Myra Finkelstein, a research toxicologist at UC Santa Cruz who was a lead author of the study. "The population is not self-sustaining."

The problem is that condors -- the birds with the largest wingspan in North America -- are scavengers. They eat dead deer, pigs and other animals, often that hunters have shot. They ingest bullet fragments and are poisoned.

Responding to the problem, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law in 2007 to ban the use of hunting with lead bullets, slugs or buckshot in the condors' range, which extends from Los Angeles to San Jose, where the birds have been seen atop Mount Hamilton. But it hasn't worked. Birds analyzed before the law took effect had blood levels the same as birds analyzed afterward.

I say, let these vultures die off already!

Sunwolf
06-26-2012, 5:25 AM
Strange how lead poisons only condors,since I knew many WW2 vets that were literally walking lead scrapyards from the lead in their bodies.It must be true though,hardly any of the vets are still alive.

CSACANNONEER
06-26-2012, 6:07 AM
Not from me. I only hunt Condors with lead free projectiles.

gatesbox
06-26-2012, 6:27 AM
I don't understand the concept that so many rounds are fired in condor zones so as to cause a significant risk to condors. Are we all out there blasting alway and not harvesting what we shoot? I don't think so. These studies are correlative not causative. Something doesn't make sense, but when did that ever matter......

njineermike
06-26-2012, 6:34 AM
Already debunked: http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=587882

AAShooter
06-26-2012, 6:35 AM
As I recall, lead levels were high in many condors kept in captivity.

mud99
06-26-2012, 6:43 AM
It's on the front page of the newspaper!

Stupid mercury news.

glockman19
06-26-2012, 7:03 AM
It's on the front page of the newspaper!

Stupid mercury news.

Front page of the LA Times too.

Yemff
06-26-2012, 7:18 AM
hmm they banned the use of lead bullets and it did nothing, seems to me there might be something else to blame.

newglockster
06-26-2012, 7:21 AM
^^^ that just makes too much sense though, so it couldn't be it...

theicecreamdan
06-26-2012, 8:09 AM
As I recall, lead levels were high in many condors kept in captivity.

"Condors raised in captivity that have not yet been released into the wild have low blood lead levels, with lead isotope ratios that fall within the range of background environmental lead in California." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120625160400.htm

timmyb21
06-26-2012, 9:29 AM
THEY STILL HAVE LEAD POISONING BECAUSE OUR BULLET FRAGMENTS AREN'T THE CAUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORONS!!

islandviewent
06-26-2012, 11:06 AM
I have dove hunted in argentina and soon as you shoot the eagles come in and eat all the dove... the healthiest birds I have ever seen!!

smoothy8500
06-26-2012, 11:16 AM
A friend of mine has been raising falcons and hawks for a long time, and he said that those birds are highly susceptible to lead poisoning. Where the lead comes form is debatable. If other animals ingest lead form polution, mining, etc, then "bullet fragments" are a small percentage of the culprit.

Jeepergeo
06-26-2012, 7:34 PM
To anyone with half a brain, the evidence presented would highly suggest that lead ammo is NOT the cause of the high lead levels in these birds. Just like bullets are not the cause of high levels of lead in poor kids.

tenpercentfirearms
06-27-2012, 9:07 AM
This proves that lead projectiles from hunter's bullets is not the cause. If the levels of lead have kept rising since the 2008 ban, then clearly the absence of most lead bullets didn't change anything. Idiots.

Antihero47
06-27-2012, 9:58 AM
Yeah, thats why Cali needs to ban all lead projectiles. Duh.


/sarcasm
/but i know this is where they might take it

jyo
06-27-2012, 9:26 PM
The Nature-Nazis want to ban ALL ammo sales---this is just a backdoor way to get there...