The California condor is one bird big enough to
complement the vast size of the Grand Canyon. But it will be a
while before visitors see the endangered birds’ huge soaring
silhouettes again.
All of the Grand Canyon
condors, whose reintroduction began in 1996, were recaptured this
summer after lead poisoning wiped out four in just a few months. A
fifth bird is believed dead.
“Before this, we’ve
had nine deaths in three and a half years, and they’ve been spread
out,” says Jeff Cilek, vice president of the nonprofit Peregrine
Fund, the group that has financed the reintroduction. “Coyotes got
a couple, a power line got one and golden eagles got a couple.”
He believes the scavenging birds ingested lead
pellets from the carcass of an animal killed with a shotgun.
Seventeen pellets were found in the digestive tract of one. “They
were just out there doing what they needed to survive, and it
killed them,” he says.
All but two of the 16
remaining condors were treated for varying levels of lead
poisoning, Cilek says. They will remain in captivity while
officials try to track down the lead
source.
“This is a setback. But when you are
recovering endangered species, you have setbacks,” Cilek says.
“We’re in uncharted waters here.”
There are 171
California condors worldwide, including 32 in California, and the
16 survivors in Arizona.
Copyright © 2000 HCN and Terri Likens
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Condors back in captivity.
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