Hunters and condors--best buddies?

You could be forgiven for thinking that once the state passed a ban on lead ammunition in California condor territory, the birds would henceforth be protected from probably their biggest environmental threat. Truth is, there were some silly loopholes in the rules. Ammunition used for eliminating animals that create a nuisance was exempt; same for ammunition used on small animals like rabbits and squirrels.

Now, after legal action by environmentalists, the state Department of Fish and Game and the Fish and Game Commission have agreed to extend the ban to depredation hunting, and will consider extending it to small-animal hunting. The extensions make sense. Condors neither know nor care whether an animal died because it was a nuisance or a rodent; they're just good at cleaning up carcasses, and in the process, they can ingest the lead from the ammunition.

The tougher part of this is enforcing the bans. Hunters who oppose them say that the birds are getting the lead elsewhere, not primarily from their bullets. The studies indicate otherwise, but the hunters could be right. Fine. Stop using the lead ammunition entirely, and we'll see what happens; it's the best test for their theory.

The strange part of all this is that environmentalists sort of like hunters, at least as far as condors are concerned, if they would just leave the lead bullets at home. With fewer cougars around to provide leftovers for the condors, hunters -- who tend to leave bits and pieces of their kills behind -- make a great substitute predator species.