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Are California condors worth saving?

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The first independent study in decades of the complex, multimillion-dollar effort to rescue the giant scavengers from extinction has raised a politically incorrect question: Has the condor recovery program been a waste of money?

The answer would seem to be yes, unless the lead ammunition that is poisoning them is totally eliminated from their environment, according to a yearlong review of the program by a blue-ribbon panel of the American Ornithologists’ Union.

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Condors, North America’s largest soaring bird, with wingspans up to 9 feet, roamed the continent for at least 40,000 years before the last wild one was captured in 1987. Since then, 300 have been bred in captivity and 150 released to the wild, where they mostly feed on carrion left by human hunters.

Last month, new California regulations took effect that ban the use of lead bullets for big-game hunting in the condor’s historic range across the central and southern parts of the state. But the ban will hard to enforce with only 200 wardens statewide.

In Arizona, the state gives coupons to hunters to voluntarily buy more expensive copper bullets. In Utah, New Mexico and Baja California, there is no restriction on lead, which is especially toxic to the birds.

The scientists call for a ban on the use of lead ammunition across state lines in the condor’s range, and even a national ban. The National Rifle Assn. has fought any restrictions on lead bullets.

For more, see the full story in today’s L.A. Times.

-- Margot Roosevelt

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