Get the Lead Out, So the California Condor, North America’s Largest Bird, Won't Just Exist on the Back of the Quarter

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Pedro Nava
Member, California State Assembly

Today only 140 free-flying California condors exist on this earth. They are the largest living thing flying over North America. You can still see a few of them near Hopper Mountain in Ventura County and in parts of Big Sur. Ten thousand years ago, soaring on their 9 foot wingspan, they once flew over saber toothed cats and woolly mammoths. Their range was all across America. We have spent millions of dollars in restoration efforts and much energy but still the condor remains in jeopardy.

Unless we eliminate the number one threat to the free-flying California condor, lead ammunition, someday the only place you will see this magnificent bird is on the face of our California quarter.

Condors are scavengers. They only eat dead things. The remaining wild condors eat the lead left in the remains of animals that have been shot with lead bullets. Most of the time, the lead bullets don’t remain intact, they shatter into tiny shards. Condors mistake the minute amounts of lead for calcium-rich bone fragments they require.

The resulting lead poisoning then induces a slow and agonizing death. The condor’s digestive system is paralyzed and they can die of starvation, become disoriented, collide with power lines, electrocute themselves or drown.

If a child had the same level of lead as is commonly found in condors, that child would be rushed to the hospital.

The fatal effects of lead are well documented. That’s why we have taken lead out of paint, water pipes, and gasoline. Nationwide, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service won’t let you use lead shot while hunting waterfowl. The lead poisons waterfowl and eagles.

If you want to protect the condor, it is easy, take out the lead. I have introduced legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) 821 that will require the use of non-lead ammunition in condor territory. Many hunters have already made the switch to non-lead ammunition. They will tell you it works just fine.