Newsflash
June 30, 2008 – Lead-free Ammunition Requirements for Hunting in California Condor Range Go Into Effect July 1st: Non-toxic Bullets Will Help Prevent Condor, Eagle, and Human Poisonings
North America’s largest bird narrowly escaped extinction in the mid-1980s when the last 22 California condors in the wild became star participants in a captive breeding and recovery program. Thanks to those efforts, more than 140 condors were flying freely in California and Arizona by 2007. But recovery is still in jeopardy: more than 40 percent of all released condors have died or been returned to captivity. A cherished icon of the West, this prehistoric-looking bird remains one of the world’s most endangered species.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1967
CRITICAL HABITAT: 570,400 acres in southern California designated in 1977
RECOVERY PLAN: 1996
RANGE: Central California, northern Arizona, southern Utah, Baja California
THREATS: Habitat loss, oil and gas drilling activities, lead poisoning, shooting, and collisions with power lines
POPULATION TREND: The California condor population rose from nine condors in the wild in 1985 to more than 140 free-flying condors in 2007.
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SAVING THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR
The goal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s California condor-recovery program is to restore at least two self-sustaining populations of 150 condors each to the wild. Despite real strides over the past two decades, the condor faces threats that jeopardize this recovery goal — and the bird’s long-term survival. The Center pressures state and federal management agencies to tackle these threats and keep the condor on track to recovery.
Poisoning by ingestion of lead shot — scavenged along with carcasses left behind by hunters — is one of the most widespread and preventable causes of condor deaths. Our Get the Lead Out Campaign calls on the states of California and Arizona to require the use of non-lead ammunition within the condor’s range. We are also doing work to rein in loss of condor habitat, which includes leading a broad coalition to preserve Tejon Ranch — a biodiversity hotspot and the state’s most vital habitat for the condor — as a national or state park. The Center has worked hard to block a series of sprawling developments that would forever change Tejon, and we vigorously oppose a proposal to grant the ranch’s owners a “license to kill” condors to make development easier.
We are vigorously opposing the Bush administration’s plans to expand oil and gas drilling in Los Padres National Forest, including surface drilling next to the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. We submitted a comprehensive, scientifically based conservation plan for the four southern California national forests to protect condors, and are challenging the Forest Service’s management plans for these forests, which would allow more environmental damage and harm condor habitat. Our influence on past management plans for these forests has resulted in the inclusion of protective measures such as using non-toxic antifreeze in vehicles and retrofitting power lines to prevent condor electrocutions.
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Contact: Jeff Miller
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