September 6, 2007

 

 

                - Radiograph of bottle caps, wire-forms, and other metallic

                  objects found in baby condor SB # 285, as noted in

                  Mee et al (2007), Bird Conservation International June 2007

                  and as submitted to the public record of the California

                  Fish & Game Commission on August 27, 2007

 

 

"...The deleterious effects of junk ingestion on condor nest success now seriously

     threaten the long-term re-establishment of a viable, self-sustaining breeding

     population in southern California..."

 

                - Quote from Mee et al (2007), Bird Conservation International

                  June 2007 and as submitted to the public record of the California

                  Fish & Game Commission on August 27, 2007

 

 

 

To All,

     Apparently Pedro Nava and the Environmentalists would have us swallow a lot of junk science in accepting their claims about lead ammunition and risks to condors:

 

Condor Pasa Update: That's Not Rain Falling On My Back-

     Sometime between August 17, 2007 and August 27, 2007, US Fish and Wildlife Service staff members at the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Reserve Complex submitted a report to the California Fish & Game Commission on the status of the California Condor Recovery Program.

 

     Titled " California Condor Recovery Program- Major Highlights  Spring-Fall 2007", it is one of a number of documents currently being presented as "evidence" in favor of banning traditional ammunition in California.

 

     Interestingly enough, it is also contains information that supports an alternate viewpoint on the current status of the condor's recovery. Add to that some of the significant findings published in the long delayed study Mee et al (2007) in Bird Conservation International, and one can actually wonder about the veracity of current claims of lead poisoning due to bullet ingestion.

 

    On Page 1 of 6 of the Overview of "California Condor Recovery", one finds a table dealing with wild chick production. Titled " Wild Production, 2001-2007", it contains the following data:

 

 

       What this small little table highlights is something also revealed in Mee et al- that a vast majority of wild-hatched baby condors are not "fledging" (otherwise known as "leaving the nest"). From 2001 to 2006 (with 2007 still pending), only 2 of 16 wild-laid eggs in California successfully fledged (12.5% success rate). The rest are dying, those few that actually hatch.

 

       In turn, the reason why baby condors are not making a go of it ( in the middle of a $40 million effort to augment wild reintroduction with heavy use of captive breeding, much like efforts to increase steelhead numbers in the Columbia River with hatchery-raised fish) is that their "on-the-go" parents are feeding them "junk food". Junk, being in this case, defined by Mee et al as such things as glass shards, bottle caps, steel staples, and a host of other trash items just as likely to lacerate parent birds as get impacted in the digestive tracts of baby condors (Note To the Condor Recovery Team- Please explain how items with an average size of 3 centimeters, especially glass, do not lacerate parent birds internally while they are at any point in the process of feeding it to their chicks.).

 

    Now, the condor's propensity to ingest junk/garbage (the vast majority of nests studied in Mee et al showed evidence of garbage deposits) also exposes them to any of a number of common trash items that may have lead compounds in them (Parts of toys made in China, anyone?). Also, previous claims by certain parties involved in the condor's recovery, claiming that there is no "proof" that condors could ingest other items that contain lead, now seem pretty much headed to that Great Circular File In The Sky given the publication of Mee et al (The question now being related as to which garbage items condors don't ingest.).

 

    So then, what is left of the arguments positing that lead ammunition is the primary threat to condor recovery, besides the metallic-lead-insolubility-in-acid issue?

 

    For starters, one has to believe that an admittedly small study (admitted by the author in public testimony at the Fish & Game Commission last July) was somehow able to statistically find those condors that ate from carrion shot and killed with only Remington and Winchester ammunition in the geographic range of the study (See Church et al, 2006).

 

    Another study, to be believable, would have one believe that condors do not ingest "hunter shot" carrion 9-10 months out of the year in areas of the state with significant pig hunting (with substantial numbers of depredation permit activity as well) year round (See Sorenson et al, 2007).

 

    A third study, to be believable, would have one believe that almost all bullets fragment into small parts consisting only of lead alloy ( Or at least it was not important for the author to be able to distinguish between purported lead fragments from other fragments like copper or bone) (See Hunt et al 2006).

 

   A fourth study, to be believable, would have one believe that legacy and other categorical amounts of soluble lead compounds in the environment are an "insignificant" threat to condor and/or other threatened species in the condor's range (See Fry et al, 2003).

 

    And finally (though not lastly), would have one believe that the Barnes' design, with it's folding "Black Talon-style" petals, would not internally lacerate those condors "unfortunate enough" to find any projectile remaining in a lost carcass or a left-behind gut pile (See August 27, 2007 Fish & Game Commission Hearing, where the Barnes Company coordinated their video presentation with the presentation by environmentalists advocating a ban of traditional bullets.).

 

     The current situation is an interesting one. NRA volunteers have presented scientific information and research that contradicts many of the most important aspects of the arguments currently be posed by ammo ban advocates. DFG Staff have even commented on the "contradictory" evidence in the August 27 hearing, to a Commission that was for the most part presented with commentary from those with what appears to be vested interest in the current theology surrounding lead ammunition (The original condor recovery document timetable involved having 150 birds in each of at least two geographic locations, with 15 breeding pairs in each location producing numbers to make the population self-sustaining in the wild by 2010. Given the garbage ingestion issue, condor population sustainability can only be had by the artificial means found in captive breeding, which means that the goals of the Recovery Plan cannot be met.).

 

    With additional hunter and gun owner input, both AB 821 and the current regulatory proposals in front of the Fish & Game Commission can be defeated. But it will take firearms activist diligence to avoid having to take this data to the courts. Stay tuned.

 

 

Note: Mee et al can be purchased for the reasonable sum of $ 20.00 from Cambridge Journals. This can be found at:  http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=BCI&volumeId=17&issueId=02  , in the June 2007 issue.

 

 

Respectfully,