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Tuesday, September 4, 2018

(Don't) Eat Lead

It's always great to know that organizations like VulPro are out there, fighting the good fight for vulture conservation overseas.  Just because you aren't off in Africa or Asia, however, doesn't mean that there aren't battles to be fought to save vultures in your own backyard.  If you are a hunter, for example, there's a relatively simple change you can make that will literally be life or death for vultures and other scavengers.

It's easy - change your bullets to non-lead.

One of the leading causes of decline of the California condor was lead bullets - and not from being shot at with them.  The condors were scavenging the remnants of animals shot with lead bullets, and were in turn ingesting little bits of lead.  This caused the condors to sicken and die.  This similarly impacted bald eagles, ravens, and other scavengers. 

Efforts have been made to reduce or (ideally) eliminate the use of lead shot in the range of the condor, but it's a hazard for birds all over the world.  Some problems are solved with enormous, sweeping legal actions.  Just as often, they can be solved by hundreds or thousands of people agreeing to make a change - sometimes a big one, sometimes a small one - in order to make a better world for wildlife.

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