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Lead-poisoning problem<br>threatens condor program

The highly-publicized California condor program in northern Arizona is fighting a crisis this summer with a series of lead-poisoning incidents.

Five condors have been found dead in the last couple of months. Lead poisoning has been confirmed as the cause of three of those deaths and was the likely cause of death for a fourth. Officials are unsure about why the fifth bird died.

“It’s definitely of the upmost concern,” said Elaine Leslie, wildlife biologist for the National Park Service. “It’s at a critical stage.”

This California condor goes through trash on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The program is facing a crisis with lead poisonings.

The lead levels in the three confirmed deaths were so high, officials felt it necessary to capture the remaining California condors, which are on the federal endangered-species list.

Officials have been trapping the birds and testing them. Two captured just last Friday each had critical levels of lead in their system. In fact, every bird now in captivity has tested positive for lead.

As of Friday, five birds remained to be trapped. The captured birds are being transported to the Phoenix Zoo. The fatalities have been sent to forensic labs at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife facility in Ashland, Ore., and to the lab at the San Diego Zoo, where some of the birds were born.

“The question is are they happening to find something they’re feeding off of?” Leslie said of the lead poisoning, “or is there someone who may be doing it deliberately?”

Leslie said nothing is being ruled out and added that until they have evidence of sources, such as hunting, fishing, lead pipes or other possibilities, they will not jump to any conclusions.

Trapping of the birds has been slow since they are finding food easily, including a highly-visited tourist spot on the South Rim.

“One landed on a power pole at the Bright Angel parking lot,” Leslie said. “Three others were attacking the trash between the El Tovar and Hopi House. They knocked over trash cans because we don’t have wildlife-proof trash cans.”

Leslie said the NPS is working with Arizona Public Service’s Don Keil to make the power lines on the South Rim “raptor or condor safe.”


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