S/R#2 California condor

California condor’s rescue project indeed increased the numbers of the bird, but at the same time, it brings some other problems. In Margot Roosevelt’s article, the first problem is it costs a lot of money to breed these large numbers of birds in captivity. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent in breeding more than 300 birds in captivity; $5 million was spent on condor recovery efforts, including $1.2 from the U.S. fish and wildlife service (2008, para. 1). But it just works for a very short time. Scientists find that “condor’s nesting success was nil before intense intervention last year to vaccinate chicks for West Nile virus and surgically remove ingested refuse such as rags, nuts, bolts, plastic and bottle cap” (2008, para. 1). Also, “human aid has lead to ‘inappropriate behavior’ of the condors; they perch on utility poles, risking electrocution” (2008, para. 1). They are not good at foraging anymore; they just rely on the carcass. This is a big problem; hunters still use the lead bullets to hunt deer, antelope and a lot of wild animals. Although our government passed the bill to provide subsidy to hunters to buy more expensive non-lead bullets, it doesn’t make any sense. Their hunting range throughout the condor range, so condors can easily find the carcass left by hunters. We need to do something besides this.

Here is what I think we should do. First of all, we should change the way we fed them before. Second, we should put our attention on the lead bullets

So, we have already found something wrong with our captivity breeding program. We made the condors lose their ability to forage, we gave them all the food they wanted and provided them a comfortable environment. They became lazy and tired to rely on us. That’s too bad. We should use a new way to feed them, or in other words, we must train them to let them become what they were. We can put the food in many different places, then condors need to find it by themselves.

Second, this is a big problem we are focused on, lead bullets. Hunters still use them because they are cheap. The non-lead bullets cost us too much money. Yes, that’s true, but can we think about something else that has happened in these years? How much have we cost on the rescue program, how much do we need to spend on rescuing them in the future? We can’t imagine it because we don’t know where the end of this journey is. So, why don’t we change it right now; we can raise the price of the lead bullets and limit the issue quantity. So, most of the hunters will prefer to buy the nonlead bullets rather than the lead bullets. The lead bullets holders will be reduced in a short time.

All in all, “hunters are the key to the birds’ survival” (“Recovery of condors in doubt”, 2008, pg. 3). If we don’t stop using the lead-ammunition, no matter how hard we try, our hard working is will result in nothing changed.

Besides these, there are still some other ways our general publicans can do to save them. “Donate money to organization working to save condors. These group lobby legislators for funding and laws to protect condors” (How to save and endangered condors”, n.d. )

Reference

Rooseve. M (2008, August 9). Recovery of condors in doubt; they rely on humans for food free of lead bullets, which has
damaged their ability to forage, study says.
Retrieved October 28, 2008 from: http://www.LexisNexis.com

“How to save California condor” eHow Hobbies, Games & Toys Editor
Retrieved: October 28, 2008 from
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