Effects of Lead
In 1996 the Arizona Game and Fish Department joined in a partnership to reintroduce North America’s largest flying scavenger, the condor, into northern Arizona. While the negative effects of lead in its various forms have been documented for decades, it wasn’t until data collected from monitoring and tracking the population at an individual level that we were able to see to what extent lead poisoning occurred in scavenging wildlife.
Because of the amount of tracking on condors, we are able to study them at a deeper level than other Arizona species.
A California Condor in flight. If you look closely, you can see blue tags on both its wings that are used for identification, as well as a tracking device to help track the bird’s behavior and well-being
From this, we discovered that death and sickness from lead poisoning play a huge role in their survival. Nearly 50% of all condor deaths with known causes can be attributed to lead poisoning. Lead poisoning is the only factor keeping condors from having a self-sustaining population.
Over two decades of continuous condor research and tracking helped us better understand annual patterns of increased exposure and risk, not only to condors, but to all scavenging wildlife. The good news is that it is preventable.
Here’s how it works…