Endangered California condors turning up with lead poisoning

[easymoney]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Live2hunt @ Jun 7 2008, 12:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

What I'm really curious about is they kept finding birds with high blood level of lead poisioning, but how do they know they birds will die with the high blood level of lead? No report of them finding dead birds, which it would be easy for them to find if birds have GPS tracking system on them. And if they did, how did they conclude the caused of death was lead? Seemed like birds were fine in the wild whether with lead in blood or not. Their articles kept saying birds were taken into treatment and died. Sound like if the birds were not taken into treatment, they would have survived. Maybe overdose of treatment is the cause of death or plainly someone effed up in the treatment process, not the blood level of lead to be blamed for death.



L2H[/b]

This is part of my concern, that not all areas of influence are being taken into account.
It reminds me of the salmon season closures, where there really are many causes and variables, yet the F&G commission is targeting only sport fisherman and commercial fisherman. Not one thing has been done over the past decades to look at the dams, farming practices, development and water release timing or amounts and the correlation to Delcine in salmon numbers.
Same things may be happening with condor numbers, maybe all the "help" from the DFG or USFWS in the form of human trapping and handling, this might be one of the reasons for the spike in deaths?

I always look forward to DFG input...

 

[Cold1nhand]

Anyone bother to look at the water? Perhaps the nesting sites? It is possible that the lead is not coming from what they eat. But it is the big bad hunters fault, so let's not look at other sources. The fact that Tejon has had their own active ban for the past 6 months and levels were still elevated tells me that lead bullets are not the cause. But what the hell do I know. I guess acording to their research, 2+2 no longer equals 4. That's just my two cents. It is easy to blame the hunter, but no one is looking at anything else.

 

[Speckmisser]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

The fact that Tejon has had their own active ban for the past 6 months and levels were still elevated tells me that lead bullets are not the cause.[/b]

Just to keep the conversation focused on facts, keep in mind that lead is a cumulative toxin, and that the birds are generally only tested once-per-year. So while it does raise questions, the fact that Tejon has been lead free for six months isn't really a valid argument, unless there's some way to prove that the poisoning happened within those last six months. The birds could have ingested lead at any time over the past year since they were last tested.

Still, this just isn't washing right. The focus on Tejon doesn't seem justified... yet Tejon is going to ridiculous lengths to appease the accusers.

 

[Cold1nhand]

Dually noted Speck.