I SUSPECT that the condor is doomed like the other "Ice Age Megafauna" that sustained it at the height of its populations.
It got an artificial(i.e. man-made) boost from the livestock practices of the Spanish and Mexican Californios, whose "rodeos" and "matanzas" killed thousands of cattle for their tallow, hides, and horns, and left the bulk of the meat for scavengers.
Anglo meat transportation and thrift finished that and the big birds were left with an unsustainable population, just as even bigger scavenger birds had been at the end of the post-glacial "wet spell." You can see all this in skeleton form at the La Brea Tar Pits museum.
I don't condone pollution, including lead pollution. But I think we need to set priorities, and work on existing populations of game and wildlife that have some chance of surviving. The condor seems to me to be a bad investment of scarce resources all around.
I think we are stuck with hunting with steel shot and expensive alternatives, as a matter of bird conservation. Wish it weren't so, but it seems that's the trend, politically and scientifically.
Centerfire rifle bullets aren't such a dire proposition, since there are decent non-lead CENTERFIRE alternatives and have been for some time.
But rimfire ammunition is a real dilemma. "Green" rimfire ammo is not very adequate in expansion or accuracy, in my experience, not to mention being too expensive for many shooters. The present nonlead bullets are wounders or ricochet prone--or both--as well.
Since at least a big part of the impetus for these new laws is purely anti-gun and anti-2nd Amendment, I suspect that the lead ban will soon be extended to TARGET ammo, probably on "public health" grounds.
That WILL be deadly. To our sport.
Last edited by Mike A.; 09/16/13 11:54 PM.
