Condor (29 page)
Authors: John Nielsen
3.
Snyder's findings came as no surprise
: reactions inside the condor program to the publication of Meretsky et al., “The California Condor: A Flagship Adrift,” and then to Snyder and Snyder,
The California Condor,
are described in unpublished letters to the editor of the journal
Conservation Biology
.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE REAL KILLERS
1.
The energy company that wanted to build this was called Enron:
my account of the fight over whether to allow the Enron Corporation to build so-called condor Cuisinarts in the middle of the condors' feeding range are based on various news accounts and press releases and on interviews with representatives of the National Audubon Society and the Tejon Ranch. I was unable to reach anyone who would agree to speak for Enron.
2.
Snyder says the problem is lead shot in the carcasses of animals:
the crises that ensued when at least six California condors contracted potentially lethal cases of lead poisoning after eating from what may have been a single but unknown food source was described at length by Farry in unpublished field notes and sharply criticized by Snyder and his allies in news reports and interviews.
3.
So what were the clues?:
studies that should have raised alarms over the possible links between the use of lead shot by hunters and the unexplained deaths of
condors have been in play since at least late 1986, when O. H. Pattee, P. H. Bloom, J. Michael Scott, and Milton R. Smith published “Lead Hazards with the Range of the California Condor,”
The Condor
92. More recent studies include V. J. Meretsky et al., “Demography of the California Condor: Implications for Reestablishment,”
Conservation Biology
(2000); and Michael Fry, “Assessment of Lead Contamination Sources Exposing California Condors,” submitted to the California Department of Fish and Game, April 7, 2003.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: ELVIS REENTERS THE BUILDING
1.
The plan to put Igor back where he had come from was approved in December 2002:
interviews conducted at the California Condor Recovery team meeting at the Los Angeles Zoo in December 2001 were augmented by extensive written materials distributed at that meeting.
JOHN NIELSEN
is an environment correspondent for National Public Radio and a fourthgeneration Californian who grew up in the condor's rangelands. As a reporter, he has come to specialize in stories about endangered species and changes to the natural landscape. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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CONDOR
. Copyright © 2006 by John Nielsen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition February 2007 ISBN 9780061740640
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