California Condors Get Help from Hunters

Photo by Lynn Chamberlain, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Utah offers rebates to those using non-lead ammunition
The amount of lead California condors are exposed to in southern Utah should be going down soon.

In August, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources launched a program to encourage hunters to use non-lead ammunition while hunting on the Zion unit near the Utah/Arizona border.

The agency mailed rebate coupons to more than 2,000 deer, elk and bighorn sheep hunters. Each hunter who received a coupon indicated he or she planned to hunt on the Zion unit this fall.

Those who receive a coupon can mail it back to the UDWR along with proof that they bought a box of non-lead ammunition. In return, the UDWR will mail a check for $25 to the hunter.

The $25 check will cover most of what they spent to buy a box of non-lead bullets.

To qualify for the rebate, hunters need to buy bullets that are truly non-lead bullets. Bonded or jacketed lead bullets will not qualify for the rebate.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Utah’s Endangered Species Mitigation Fund provided the money for the rebate.

Lead poisoning
California condors are scavengers. Among the animals they eat are those that die after being wounded. They also eat gut piles that are left after hunters clean the animals the hunters have harvested.

Keith Day, a regional sensitive species biologist for the UDWR, says the animal carcasses and gut piles often contain fragments from lead bullets. After ingesting the fragments, the condors can contract lead poisoning.

Day says 15 condors have died from lead poisoning since condors were reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah in 1996. He says lead poisoning is the greatest threat to the recovery of condors in the two states.

“More than 60 percent of the condors show signs of exposure to lead each year,” Day says. “That’s dangerously high for a population that numbers about 75 birds.”

Day says he’s hopeful the non-lead program will turn that figure around.

“Hunters top the list of people who care about wildlife and want to see it flourish,” Day says. “If you’re among those who received a coupon, we hope you’ll buy a box of non-lead bullets and use them while hunting on the Zion unit this fall.

”We think it’s possible to have both a quality hunt and a healthy California condor population in Utah.”

3 California condors die in Arizona

Photo by Lynn Chamberlain

BOISE, IDAHO—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.


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.

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 http://www.peregrinefund.org/  or www.wildlife.utah.gov/condors .



DID YOU KNOW?

•By 1982, just 22 California Condors remained on Earth. Captive breeding programs were established in the 1980s.

•California Condors now live in the wild in Arizona, Utah, California and Mexico.

•The condor is the largest flying land bird in North America. The birds can weigh up to 26 pounds and have a wingspan up to 9 feet.

•Condors reach maturity at about six years of age. They usually produce one egg every other year.

•Prior to reintroduction, the last wild condor in Arizona was sighted just south of the Grand Canyon in 1924.

•There are now 74 condors in Arizona and Utah.

•Visitors at the Grand Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs may be able to observe the birds, especially during the spring and summer.