Legislation to Save North America’s Largest Bird the Condor--Passes Senate
California Political Desk
September 04, 2007
Sacramento, CA -Assemblymember Pedro Nava’s legislation to protect the last remaining California condors passed from the California State Senate today 23 to 15.
I am elated that the fight to save the condor, North America’s largest bird, is one step closer to reality,” stated Nava. “The California condor is a national treasure and with the recent death of a California condor at the Los Angeles Zoo last week from lead poisoning, further highlights the urgent need for my legislation so that our children and grandchildren can know and see these magnificent birds in the wild.”
AB 821, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act will remove the number one threat to the survival of the endangered California condor, lead ammunition, by having hunters switch to a widely available, non lead ammunition alternative when they hunt big game and coyote in condor country.
Once, they covered the continent, and the California condor flew over woolly mammoths and saber toothed tigers, until their number one predator, man brought them to the brink of extinction.
In 1987 the last remaining 22 wild California condors on earth were captured and placed in protective custody. Over the years, the population has incrementally increased, bird by bird, until 1992 when condors were reintroduced to the wild, and their biggest threat, lead ammunition.
The condor is a scavenger and eats carcasses left by hunters where accidentally ingested fragments of lead ammunition are mistaken for bones with nutritious calcium. If not captured, tested, and treated for lead poisoning the California condor would have less than the 70 flying wild in California today.
In 2005, after $10,000 worth of invasive treatment, a lead poisoned female condor survived to hatch the first wild condor chick in California in over 100 years,” said Nava. “Today, with the passage of AB 821, California is one step closer to protecting the newest member of the condor family from its biggest threat, lead ammunition.”
To show your support for this measure please contact my office in Sacramento at 916-319-2035 or in my district at 805-564-1649.
I am elated that the fight to save the condor, North America’s largest bird, is one step closer to reality,” stated Nava. “The California condor is a national treasure and with the recent death of a California condor at the Los Angeles Zoo last week from lead poisoning, further highlights the urgent need for my legislation so that our children and grandchildren can know and see these magnificent birds in the wild.”
AB 821, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act will remove the number one threat to the survival of the endangered California condor, lead ammunition, by having hunters switch to a widely available, non lead ammunition alternative when they hunt big game and coyote in condor country.
Once, they covered the continent, and the California condor flew over woolly mammoths and saber toothed tigers, until their number one predator, man brought them to the brink of extinction.
In 1987 the last remaining 22 wild California condors on earth were captured and placed in protective custody. Over the years, the population has incrementally increased, bird by bird, until 1992 when condors were reintroduced to the wild, and their biggest threat, lead ammunition.
The condor is a scavenger and eats carcasses left by hunters where accidentally ingested fragments of lead ammunition are mistaken for bones with nutritious calcium. If not captured, tested, and treated for lead poisoning the California condor would have less than the 70 flying wild in California today.
In 2005, after $10,000 worth of invasive treatment, a lead poisoned female condor survived to hatch the first wild condor chick in California in over 100 years,” said Nava. “Today, with the passage of AB 821, California is one step closer to protecting the newest member of the condor family from its biggest threat, lead ammunition.”
To show your support for this measure please contact my office in Sacramento at 916-319-2035 or in my district at 805-564-1649.
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