It is a giant massive creature that is a relic of old times. It must eat a lot more dead creatures than modern buzzards to sustain itself. This means it injests more period. As it finds gut piles, or dead animals from hunters' kills it consumes them. Working with a limited number of animals on which it can feed, and an even more limited number of them dead, it is quite likely that a good number of those limited quantity dead animals will have been killed by hunters.
The bird and people just to do not mix. From power lines, to lead, to us getting rid of most predators that used to create meals for them, such as Grizzly Bears and Mountain Lions killing plentiful game. The only reliable predator now making consistant kills for this scavenger to feast on is humans. Humans use guns.
The truth is this bird is going to die, it is some agencies pet project to enjoy spending millions on 300 birds and feeling they are making a big difference for wildlife, which is likely what they see as thier calling in life. However the human population is growing at a tremendous rate, and habitat loss is going to kill more species than all hunters and other problems combined. They would save more animals spending those millions to purchase birth control for third world nations.
If someone is really an ECO freak, they would have 0 children, as that is the single biggest way someone can forestall the eradication of animals. Well outside of actively getting rid of people. There is of course the Rainbow Six novel's approach of ECO terrorism and trying to kill off large numbers of the human population with disease and strife for the benefit of wildlife and habitat.
Severely restricting the activities of millions for the benefit of 300 seems a bit imbalanced. Perhaps it makes sense to some, but where does one draw the line. CA population as of 2006 was 36,457,549.
So that means 121,525 people are must be restricted per bird. That is one special bird.
A bird that depends on a wildlife population that no longer exists to flourish in numbers. We simply do not have enough predators killing game throughout the state to naturaly keep such a creature fed in large numbers. The predators posed a risk to humans and most have been eliminated in CA. There is the occasional mountain lion, but most are gone.
So for every
like this chick here, 121,525 people need to change what kind of ammo they use to something much less effective. When the lead is responsible for only a single limited problem out of a great many for this animal.
