Endangered Condors Threatened With Lead Poisoning
PAGE, AZ - MARCH 22: A rare and endangered California condor flies through Marble Gorge, east of Grand Canyon National Park March 22, 2007 west of Page, Arizona. Condor managers taking blood samples from the 57 wild condors in Arizona both before and after hunting season find that all 57 condors test positive for contamination by lead matching the isotropic fingerprint of the lead commonly used in ammunition, and that those levels rise significantly by the end of the season. Many of the condors become so sick that biologists must re-capture them for lead-poisoning treatments. Several condors die each year. Experts believe the condors are ingesting the lead as they scavenge gut piles left behind hunters because lead bullets shatter and fragment inside the kill. Officials in Arizona are encouraging hunters to use copper bullets instead of lead-based ammunition and in California a coalition of conservation groups have sued the California Fish and Game Commission in an effort to force a ban on lead ammunition in Condor ranges. The condors in the Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs area easily fly as far west as Lake Mead, by way of the Grand Canyon, and to Zion National Park and far into Utah. With a wingspan up to nine and a half feet, condors are the largest flying birds in North America. In 1982, when the world population of California condors dropped to only 22 and extinction was believed eminent, biologist captured them and began a captive breeding and release program which has increased the total population to 278, of which 132 now live in the wild in Arizona, California, and Baja California, Mexico.
(Photo : Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Several California birds are poised to be unleashed in the country's north, where the "spectacular" creatures have been gone for further a century.

The United States issued a remark on Facebook last week, Wednesday. The Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) would deploy four birds in the Redwood Forest and Recreation Areas territory during mid-September and mid-October.

100-Year Absence of California Candors

The NCCRP, which is made up of scientists and technologists from the Yurok Council and Redwood Wildlife Reserve, has recently published four additional California birds in the region during the period of May and July.

This had been the most northern California condor discharge yet, and the species were soaring wild in an area of their traditional habitat where they had not been seen for a while.

In accordance with the FWS, the California bird is the biggest terrestrial bird in North America, with a height of about 10 feet and a weight of up to 25 pounds.

These enormous birds previously spanned a broad territory that stretched from California to Florida, as well as from western Canada to Mexico. However, the bird's territory shrank considerably approximately 10,000 years ago when a number of the huge animal genera it dined on became endangered, as per Newsweek.

By the mid-twentieth era, the genus must have experienced dramatic losses due to sentient concerns like contamination and poaching, and the executive branch listed the bird as vulnerable in 1967.

Condors were on the verge of annihilation by 1982, with barely 22 recorded wild animals left. Conservation officials made the initiative in 1987 to capture all surviving migratory condors and initiate a genetic improvement.

As stated by Flipboard, under the support of the California Condor Restoration Initiative, FSW began returning captive-bred condors into the wilderness in 1992. Whereas the genus remains one of the natural wonders of the planet, the entire global count currently exceeds 500, with much more than 50% of these soaring unrestricted in the outdoors, based on the National Park Service.

Condors were discharged at several locations in central and southern California, Arizona, including Baja California, Mexico up to this year. However, the creatures were returned to Northern California in 2022, and today four additional birds are slated to be discharged in to wilderness in this location, bringing the overall rich biodiversity to eight, Trend Radars updated.

Also read: Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis: A Deadly Fungus That Can Reduce Frogs' Protective Skin Microbiota

California Candors Fly North

Researchers are incredibly happy to acquire the latest condor cohort. According to Yurok Department of Wildlife Director Tiana Williams-Claussen stated in a message released by the FSW, she absolutely cannot wait to witness all eight birds soaring freely across Yurok Nation; the initial batch of birds is settling in nicely in the redwood zone.

As per the FSW, the time duration of the subsequent cohort's discharge will be determined by NCCRP scientists' evaluations of the birds' preparedness. The latest issue consists of one female and three males aged one to two years. California birds are thought to live for more than six decades.

Condors, as foragers, provide an invaluable function to the ecology by consuming carrion. They are particularly important in the religious and ethnic beliefs of the Yurok Tribe and other Native American tribes.

The Yurok Council began the rehabilitation work in Northern California in 2008, with assistance from the FSW as well as other collaborators. It is currently a component of the larger California Condor Rescue Project, CNN reported.

Over the next twenty years, the NCCRP intends to restore one batch of California condors annually. As stated by the Yurok Tribe, the baby condors discharged in the first batch are thriving in the redwood area.

The tribe stated that the birds continuously demonstrate better eating, including as eating, flying, and locating suitable roosts.

Related article: Male Dolphins Form an Alliance Network To Pursue Consortships