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HUNTER AND CONDORS -- Jim Matthews column-ONS -- 18jun03
Hunters can help condor recovery effort
The California Department of Fish and Game is finally coming on board to help educate and encourage hunters to assist with the California Condor recovery effort. For the past three years, local outdoor publications have been reporting on the problems associated with lead bullet residue, mostly in the gutpiles of hunter-killed game, and the illness and deaths of critically endangered condors that pick up that lead while feeding.
Two recent surveys of all of the data on the issue strongly support the connection between hunter's bullets or bullet residue and lead poisoning of the majestic condors. As a result of these reports, the DFG's is now working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a variety of conservation and hunter groups -- including the National Rifle Association, Safari Club, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the Wildlife Management Institute -- to help educate hunters and implement a voluntary program to reduce or end condor deaths and illness related to hunter lead.
Both reports also recommend that some interesting research be conducted to help determine the extent of the problem beyond what is already known. They include better monitoring of wild condors for lead levels in their system and where they are feeding and might be getting lead, analysis of condor feathers to monitor lead levels accumulated over time, incidence of lead in condor forage outside of that related to hunter bullets and fragments, and amount of lead from hunter's bullets that is left as residue in gut piles, shot varmints, or lost game.
As a result of the work that has been done, hunters who pursue all types of big and small game in condor country -- both California and Arizona where the birds have been released near the Grand Canyon -- are being asked to do the following things:
-- retrieve all carcasses -- both big game, varmints, and small game -- where possible or dispose of unwanted portions where they are not available to scavenging condors. This could include burying or moving gutpiles or varmints out of open areas where condors usually feed, making the possibly lead-tainted remains unavailable to the birds.
-- remove all bullets from big game carcasses, where possible. At the very least, hunters should trim away all bloodshot meat and entrails and make sure these portions are made unavailable to condors and other scavenging birds (golden eagles, which have been recovering slowly from declines mostly due to DDT poisoning in the past, are also affected with lead poisoning).
-- the simplest alternative is to use "gutpile safe" ammunition when hunting big game in condor country. Solid copper bullets, like the Barnes X-Bullet, or slugs where no lead is exposed when the bullet is mushrooming and penetrating through game, like the Winchester Fail Safe, are safe alternatives. Both of these slugs generally pass completely through game and retain 100 percent of the original weight leaving no residue behind. But if they do not exit, hunters should make every effort to recover the slug because copper is also toxic.
Lead-based bullets shed small fragments of their lead core when mushrooming in game. Recovered slugs generally only weigh from 40 to 60 percent of their original weight, leaving behind the rest in the wound channel of game. Much of this lead is caught in the tissue and elastic entrails that we leave behind in the field when dressing game, and that lead has been identified as a significant source of lead that poisons condors.
Many biologists believe that hunter-killed game becomes a significant source of food for condors in the fall months, and they would like to see hunters use the gutpile safe slugs so this food source remains available -- so long as it is safe.
Deer hunters in the southern portion of the A zone, along with zones D13, D10, D9, and even D8 (and Arizona hunting units 9, 12a and 12b) are being asked to take the precautions needed to help condors. Wild hog hunters throughout this same region also need to be aware of the problem, and varmint hunters should make sure game left in the field isn't readily available to the big birds.
Hunters need to recognize that if we can solve this problem voluntarily, there will be little reason for the federal or state regulators to force unnecessary bullet and hunting restrictions on us. But if we continue to ignore the problem, there are already some beating the drum to force non-toxic ammunition requirements on hunters or close off vast areas under the guise of protecting condors and eagles. Hunters need to step up to the plate and prove we are still the first and best conservationists. Solving this problem is an easy one for us
Hunters can help condor recovery effort
The California Department of Fish and Game is finally coming on board to help educate and encourage hunters to assist with the California Condor recovery effort. For the past three years, local outdoor publications have been reporting on the problems associated with lead bullet residue, mostly in the gutpiles of hunter-killed game, and the illness and deaths of critically endangered condors that pick up that lead while feeding.
Two recent surveys of all of the data on the issue strongly support the connection between hunter's bullets or bullet residue and lead poisoning of the majestic condors. As a result of these reports, the DFG's is now working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a variety of conservation and hunter groups -- including the National Rifle Association, Safari Club, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the Wildlife Management Institute -- to help educate hunters and implement a voluntary program to reduce or end condor deaths and illness related to hunter lead.
Both reports also recommend that some interesting research be conducted to help determine the extent of the problem beyond what is already known. They include better monitoring of wild condors for lead levels in their system and where they are feeding and might be getting lead, analysis of condor feathers to monitor lead levels accumulated over time, incidence of lead in condor forage outside of that related to hunter bullets and fragments, and amount of lead from hunter's bullets that is left as residue in gut piles, shot varmints, or lost game.
As a result of the work that has been done, hunters who pursue all types of big and small game in condor country -- both California and Arizona where the birds have been released near the Grand Canyon -- are being asked to do the following things:
-- retrieve all carcasses -- both big game, varmints, and small game -- where possible or dispose of unwanted portions where they are not available to scavenging condors. This could include burying or moving gutpiles or varmints out of open areas where condors usually feed, making the possibly lead-tainted remains unavailable to the birds.
-- remove all bullets from big game carcasses, where possible. At the very least, hunters should trim away all bloodshot meat and entrails and make sure these portions are made unavailable to condors and other scavenging birds (golden eagles, which have been recovering slowly from declines mostly due to DDT poisoning in the past, are also affected with lead poisoning).
-- the simplest alternative is to use "gutpile safe" ammunition when hunting big game in condor country. Solid copper bullets, like the Barnes X-Bullet, or slugs where no lead is exposed when the bullet is mushrooming and penetrating through game, like the Winchester Fail Safe, are safe alternatives. Both of these slugs generally pass completely through game and retain 100 percent of the original weight leaving no residue behind. But if they do not exit, hunters should make every effort to recover the slug because copper is also toxic.
Lead-based bullets shed small fragments of their lead core when mushrooming in game. Recovered slugs generally only weigh from 40 to 60 percent of their original weight, leaving behind the rest in the wound channel of game. Much of this lead is caught in the tissue and elastic entrails that we leave behind in the field when dressing game, and that lead has been identified as a significant source of lead that poisons condors.
Many biologists believe that hunter-killed game becomes a significant source of food for condors in the fall months, and they would like to see hunters use the gutpile safe slugs so this food source remains available -- so long as it is safe.
Deer hunters in the southern portion of the A zone, along with zones D13, D10, D9, and even D8 (and Arizona hunting units 9, 12a and 12b) are being asked to take the precautions needed to help condors. Wild hog hunters throughout this same region also need to be aware of the problem, and varmint hunters should make sure game left in the field isn't readily available to the big birds.
Hunters need to recognize that if we can solve this problem voluntarily, there will be little reason for the federal or state regulators to force unnecessary bullet and hunting restrictions on us. But if we continue to ignore the problem, there are already some beating the drum to force non-toxic ammunition requirements on hunters or close off vast areas under the guise of protecting condors and eagles. Hunters need to step up to the plate and prove we are still the first and best conservationists. Solving this problem is an easy one for us
