Fellow Story
Finkelstein's report on epidemic level of lead poisoning in California condors picked up worldwide
The California condor's return from near extinction is threatened by persistent exposure to lead-based bullets, despite intensive efforts to treat and care for poisoned birds each year, scientists say.
Lead poisoning in the condors is now "of epidemic proportions," said Myra Finkelstein, a research toxicologist at UC Santa Cruz and the principal author of a report on the condor problem in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.