Scavenged Bullets Dooming Condors

ScienceNOW ^ | 25 June 2012 | Elizabeth Norton

[faucetman]

““The science is solid and the conclusions inescapable”

Where have we heard something like that before?

I saw a show about this recently. They were rehabbing Condors who were hooked on lead. Treating them with some chemicals to get rid of the lead?

Common sense tells me that their numbers are BS. How many hunters are out there killing big game and not harvesting the game? The birds search the carcasses for the bullets and always find and east it? What about all the other scavengers? They never get the lead FIRST? “Heh, you Buzzard,leave that lead for the Condors”. Oh, I forgot..... Condors ARE Buzzards.

[SampleMan]

Yep, I finally arrived at peanut butter too. Even a dog that is too sick to eat will clean a dab of peanut butter off the roof of his mouth.

[Greysard]

Anyone who hunts varmints in the Condor range already has to use lead-free ammo. This is the law since 2007. Lead-free (tin) based ammo is available for insignificant money in .17HMR and .22LR and .22WMR. I also have a few boxes of lead-free .223 but I don't use that caliber here due to a restriction imposed by the owner of the land. In the northern counties I can use the regular .223.

[the_daug]

I call BS

[Vince Ferrer]

I’d like to see their raw data.

[Ron C.]

This is unmitigated BS. CA condors faced FAR more lead in carrion over 150 years ago, when nearly all CA residents used guns to hunt in flat-land condor-feeding territories - particularly in flat areas (near condor nesting in the mountains) where condors found the greatest amount of their diet.

The difference in years gone-by was the much greater use of shotguns for hunting game birds that were quite plentiful in the San Joaquin Valley. Many a bird didn't die from shotgun injuries, so did not get collected by hunters - condors found and ate them in great numbers, yet didn't decline in numbers until mankind occupied greater and greater amounts of landscape, turning condor hunting grounds into urban areas squeezing out near all wildlife.

There's another problem with the lead-poisoning theory - that other buzzards don't seem to suffer from the same lead poisoning elsewhere - in NM, AZ, TX, buzzard populations seem quite healthy - and plentiful. I travel to these states frequently and several times seen CA condors in AZ and NM, apparently doing quite well! There's no mistaking them - they're much larger than the average buzzard. Look for them in the mountains and valleys within mountains. And, to really push the envelope, I would bet there are more people per capita using guns on a regular basis in these states.

Last there is the fact that CA condors will come very close to the the ground and 'hover' over perceived carrion - when humans with guns are present. So close in fact, many hunters will shoot at them - thinking they are dangerous when they certainly aren't - or just 'for practice.' I witnessed such human behavior far more than once 25-30 years ago as an avid hunter, where condors were frequently seen.

[MaxMax]

I stopped eating condors when it got harder to find them, much like the spotted owl.
But now that the greenies have increased their population I will start up again.
My outdoor rotisserie awaits.

[neverdem]

I suppose it may be different for birds since they have a gizzard. maybe chunks of lead are ground up in a gizzard. But why is it birds never had a problem going extinct until now?

I'd like to see the results of autopsies with special attention to gizzards. Metallic lead is fairly unreactive.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

We are to believe hunters shoot animals and then leave them where they fall? So there is a sport where people shoot to kill for the thrill? Sounds more like the inner city.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

We are to believe hunters shoot animals and then leave them where they fall? So there is a sport where people shoot to kill for the thrill? Sounds more like the inner city.

[Tainan]

I don’t see how this affects me. I don’t eat condors.

:clap: :clap:...Best. Post. Today.....Bravo!

[Condor51]

Scavenged Bullets Dooming Condors

Bull. They don't bother me.
It's all the dam Hippies in Kalifornia that are dooming me.

regards,
Condor₅₁

:-)

[Repulican Donkey]

Seriously, our government is broke but it funds this kind of crap?

[Repulican Donkey]

Article’s first idiotic assumption: hunters just go around shooting randomly like the old time buffalo hunters and leave the carcasses behind. Second idiotic assumption: only a few hundred condors scavenge while buzzards, raccoons, possums, ants, coyotes just stand around and watch.

[STD]

Jay Carney approaches the microphone at a White Hut Presser; 'the Obama Regime has received reliable evidence that Mother Nature herself does not support the Second Amendment of the Constitution and is in fact running her own version of Operation Fast & Furious.

In danger. The California condor is threatened by lead poisoning from bullets in scavenged carcasses.

Today, Carney continues, The Regime has decided that we must introduce a massive Condor re-education and immigration reform plan.

Employing, the unconventional, specially trained class warriors that are highly motivated by 'free Obama stuff' campaign cocaine and homey heroin. These wonderful young American's are ex-Acorn Special Forces troops. They have descended upon the lonely mountain top retreats of these degenerate and greedy young condor capitalists.

'Back in the dark days of Bush ( the President, not the Band, Carney explains ) these nests were inhabited by some bitter clinging birds'.

Can't you imagine a better future full of hope and change for these dirty birds?

A computer created image appears on an overhead screen, this is a composite image that shows, this brave 'bandanna of brothers' dressed up in their Trayvon TM replica black hoodies, which you may purchase from our campaign website.

Here they are again performing in composite as a carefully choreographed urban dance company and flash mob army. These are the Regime's black hooded inner city shock troops. The computer allows them to emerge face first from a smoke screen rappelling en mass down the sheer face of a cliff to appear together looking down upon a huge Condor nest. The nest is newly occupied by loud, greedy and hungry young Jews and Crusaders. These capitalist condor activists must change and adopt a more Earth friendly stance.

In reply, the hip-hop invaders start up their highly hypnotic dance routine and protest chant. Of course, it's accompanied by a large sacred Indian protest drum somebody stole from Madison.

'Look up here you dirty Bird, we got some food stamps so be smart, don't eat no road kill, it's bad for your heart'

Humbled wings reach out to embrace eager human hands, look at these dumb motherfu--kers, no wonder their on the endangered species list! I'm gonna make me a whole mess of hot wings. Just look at these dumb crackers. Too damn dumb to survive!

The scene then closes with an image of a defaced granite cliff face, it's been freshly tagged with fluorescent orange spray paint that announces another cultural conquest 'all are dirty birds belong to us'

[STD]

see my post # 55, we must both be thinking alike. I know what’s in my brain, so you had better watch out. Certain talk can get you placed on the Regime’s ‘shoot on site’ list, but they’ll have to put depleted uranium warheads on those Hellfire missiles, or those lazy condors will all die from too much hope and change. Got it Buddy?

[JimRed]

Species have been going extinct since the beginning of time. When the condors are gone, the buzzards will fill their niche.

[neverdem]

LOL!