Another 'Wake-up Call'

Editor:

Great news about our North Coast California condor A9 again flying free following weeks of intensive medical treatment at the Sequoia Park Zoo due to a potentially lethal case of lead poisoning, though scary news about eight other condors with elevated lead levels during a recent exam (“Another Close Condor Call,” Nov. 21).

We can only hope this will be a wake-up call for North Coast hunters to stop using lead ammunition.

In a related backstory on research into the dangers of lead poisoning of local California condors, I saw turkey vulture with tag No. 80 again at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary on Nov. 8. First trapped and tagged on July 13, 2011, in Korbel, this turkey vulture was an average-sized adult in good condition, but for a little lead. “No. 80 did have high enough blood lead at the time that we considered them to have been exposed to a point source of lead. Based on other research done on vultures, it most likely came from lead ammunition fragments found in scavenged carcasses,” said Chris West, program manager of the Yurok Tribe Northern California Condor Restoration Program in the article “Meet Turkey Vulture No. 80,” in the Dec. 9, 2021, edition of the Journal.

The reason West was trapping and tagging local turkey vultures (sometimes called the “janitors of the outdoors”) was to see how much lead exposure condors would face if they were to be released in our area. West’s initial studies looked at lead levels in turkey vultures during hunting season and found they were lower here than other places where condors have been re-established.

Keep your eyes open for another sighting of turkey vulture No. 80 — and may the condors find fewer food sources laden with lead bullet fragments in the future.

Mark Larson, Arcata