Puppety Love

Tame offspring and unsafe food sources could spell trouble for the effort to restore the California condor in the West, says a new study published in the journal Conservation Biology. Since the feds rounded up the last 27 wild condors in the 1980s and began a captive breeding program, most eggs have been removed from females' nests so that they will lay others. Chicks hatched from the removed eggs have been raised by humans wearing hand-puppets resembling condors. According to the study, the puppet-raised birds are too acclimated to humans and not suited for the wild. The study also found that birds released into the wild are still at great risk of dying from chowing down on animal carcasses felled by lead bullets; lead poisoning was a significant reason for the bird's decline in the first place. Those involved with the condor restoration program responded to the study by saying that puppet-raised birds would drop any bad habits once they reached sexual maturity, and that non-toxic ammunition will be hitting the market soon and may reduce the threat of lead poisoning.