California Condors die after eating lead bullets

May 23, 2013

A conservation group says lead poisoning killed several endangered birds last winter. The Peregrine Fund says eight California Condors died last winter in Arizona and Utah. Four of them died from lead poisoning.

The birds ingest lead when eating the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets. Two of the other condors that died may have been injured by a predator, and two couldn’t be recovered.

The Peregrine Fund’s condor reintroduction project said 72 condors live in an area that runs from Zion National Park in southern Utah down to the Grand Canyon.

Arizona has been trying to protect the birds by getting hunters to use lead-free bullets and dispose of any animals they kill.