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Condors Back in Arizona

Now, let’s get the lead out!

California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) are the largest flying land birds in North America, with 9½ foot wingspans and weighing up to 25 pounds.

Condors are members of the vulture family. They do not hunt but do provide free clean-up service by scavenging on large dead mammals.

Condors live in high ledges or caves near strong updrafts and look for food in open grasslands/savannahs.

Condors mate for life at age six or seven and lay only one egg every other year.

Their low reproductive rate, coupled with numerous threats including loss of habitat, shooting, and poisoning by lead and DDT, nearly resulted in the extinction of the species, and, by 1982, there were only 22 condors left in the world.

After years of captive breeding and releases, there are now about 63 condors in the wild in Arizona, mostly near the Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon. There are another 80 condors in California and 15 in Mexico, plus about 140 in captivity.

Condors can live 60 years in the wild… unless they fall to their biggest threat today: lead poisoning from eating carrion tainted by lead ammunition.

The Phoenix Zoo has treated more than 20 condors that ingested toxic levels of lead since 1999.

Bald and golden eagles and humans are also at risk from this lead poisoning.

For several years the Arizona Game and Fish Commission has conducted a very well-received voluntary lead reduction program and hunter education campaign, including free distribution of non-lead ammunition to hunters in the condor range.

Despite the positive response (in 2006, 60 percent of Arizona hunters used non-lead ammunition), six condors died and 70 percent required treatment for lead poisoning in 2006.

Safe, reliable, and well-performing non-lead bullets are commercially available.

That’s why the Sierra Club, The Phoenix Zoo, and other groups are asking the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to:

• require non-lead ammunition in the California condor recovery area.
• establish a public process for certifying lead-free ammunition.
  

For more information, contact the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter at 602-253-8633 or sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org. Also check out www.arizona.sierraclub.org

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