California condors, once near extinction, have been gaining in number under breeding efforts.
Bruce Robertson, a private detective, had little to go on. Two gunshot victims, one soon to be dead, both found in the Big Sur wilderness. The victims had brown eyes, ruddy faces and nine-foot wingspans.
Ordinarily Mr. Robertson, of Los Angeles, hunts down philandering husbands and ferrets out insurance violators. But his skills are being tested in this latest mystery: the shootings of two endangered California condors.
“It’s a tough case,” said Mr. Robertson, 58. “The shooter could be anywhere.”
Biologists have been coaxing condors back from the brink of extinction since the early 1980s, when just 22 birds remained. Since then, the California condor count has been steadily climbing. The current tally is 336, with more than half of those living in the wild in Arizona, Baja California, California and Utah, and the rest living in zoos and bird sanctuaries. Those in the wild wear numbered ID tags and radio transmitters for tracking.
In March, scientists captured the two ill-looking condors, which were full of shotgun pellets. In addition, Condor 286, known as Pinns (because he was one of the oldest condors released at Pinnacles National Monument), and Condor 375 suffered from lead poisoning that biologists believe to be a result of eating bullet-laced animal carcasses left by hunters.
While the shotgun pellets lodged in the birds concerned scientists, it was the lead in their blood that proved more deadly. On May 11, Pinns died of lead poisoning at the Los Angeles Zoo. Condor 375 recovered and was released back into the wild.
News of two lead-riddled condors set phones ringing at environmental groups’ offices across the West.
“It was really distressing to me,” said Peter Galvin, a founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson. “As soon as I heard, I knew we needed to get a dragnet and resources out there to capture this shooter.”
Within 48 hours, Mr. Robertson was on the case — at the invitation of the center — and environmental groups, foundations and the state government had raised $40,500 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the gunman or gunmen. Violation of the federal Endangered Species Act can result in a year in jail and a $100,000 fine..
Mr. Robertson logged over 1,000 miles on his car. He stopped at diners, gas stations and bars from the craggy Big Sur coast eastward to the Pinnacles National Monument. He questioned men in tiny communities with names like Bitterwater. Occasionally, Mr. Robertson pulled over to talk condors and guns with ranch hands.
His first stop in King City, some 150 miles south of San Francisco, was a one-room gun shop tucked behind a roadside liquor store. When he goes undercover, Mr. Robertson said, he tries to “keep the lies to a minimum.” So on this day he was just Bruce, a nature photography buff with a thing for really big birds.
“I want to photograph some wildlife,” Mr. Robertson told the gun shop owner. “Know where I can find wild pigs or elk or condors around here?”
The men got to discussing a new state ban on lead bullets, and the gun shop owner expressed his disgust with it.
The ban was instituted in July in condor territory, which stretches along the coastal ranges from Silicon Valley south to Los Angeles County. “Lead poisoning is the No. 1 threat to these birds,” said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the nonprofit Ventana Wildlife Society, which raises, cares for and releases condors in Big Sur.
Condors scavenge for dead animals and often feast on the carrion of deer, pigs and squirrels shot — often with lead bullets — by hunters or ranchers. Fourteen condors have died from lead poisoning in California and 12 more in Utah and Arizona since the condor conservation program began in 1982. Dozens of poisoned birds have undergone blood transfusions, been given medication and been fed intravenously.
Mr. Sorenson is concerned that the timing of the condor shootings coincides with the lead-bullet ban. “There are clearly some people out there that are really angry and upset,” he said.
Mr. Robertson also said he thought that anger over the ban might have played a role in the shootings. When he asked a rancher near Pinnacles National Monument if he had seen any condors, the man replied that he had shot them all and that the birds’ eggs were pretty tasty, too.
This weekend Mr. Robertson plans to shed his undercover guise and begin distributing wanted posters on doorsteps, telephone poles and in mailboxes and gun shops across the Central Coast. The posters highlight the cash reward and ask anyone with information to call an 800 number or send an e-mail message.
“People will start talking when they find out about the money,” he said.
The posters rankle federal Fish and Wildlife Service officials. “It would be much better if people with information contacted law enforcement officials trained to handle such information in the proper way,” said Alex Pitts, an agency spokeswoman.
Law enforcement officials from the agency and from the California Department of Fish and Game and local sheriff’s offices are conducting their own investigation into the condor shootings. “I hope if he finds information he gives it to our investigators,” Ms. Pitts said of Mr. Robertson.
Meanwhile, Mr. Robertson has drawn a red circle on his map where he thinks the shooting occurred. “There’s definitely smoke around here,” he said steering around tortuous turns east of King City. “And where there’s smoke, there’s always fire.”
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Full article and photo: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/science/earth/24condor.html?hp
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$40,500 reward offered in shooting of 2 California condors
A private detective from Culver City, Bruce Robertson, should “stay out of my way,” said Dan Crum, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s resident agent for Northern California and lead investigator into the recent shootings in Monterey County, near Big Sur.
In an interview in his office, Robertson, who is a member of the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “I believe that the reward will loosen tongues in rural areas where times are tough right now.”
Robertson declined to reveal his approach to the case on grounds it might tip off the shooter. However, he said he plans to travel to Monterey County next week to “begin organizing a team of investigators who will leverage their connections in the area to cast a wide net.”
“A lot of information connected to this case will have to be obtained at ground level, meaning feet on the street,” he said.
“The goal is to solve the crime. These shootings need to stop right now. We can’t wait for weeks or months.
“I’m not interested in getting in the way of the forensic investigation,” he added. “I just want to make sure the investigation is moving along as efficiently as possible.”
In the meantime, the wounded condors remained under care at the Los Angeles Zoo, suffering from lead poisoning and gunshot wounds.
Biologists with the Ventana Wildlife Society, based in Monterey, discovered the ailing birds — an adult male known as condor 286 and a juvenile female, condor 375, last month.
The birds were taken to the Los Angeles Zoo, where veterinary examinations revealed that the male had 15 buckshot pellets embedded in its muscle tissue and the female had three pellets in the left wing and thigh.
Federal biologists said the poisoning resulted from ingestion of lead ammunition fragments in game downed by hunters.
The pellets, however, were fired from shotguns. Investigators want to find who fired the shots.
On Thursday, Humane Society officials said the male condor was in critical condition and being fed through a tube. The female was in better condition, but it was unclear whether either one would be able to fly again.
They are among 81 California condors in the state, and 322 on the planet. Condor recovery programs have made the majestic scavengers reliant on humans to provide food free of contamination from lead ammunition.
California passed a law in 2007 that prohibits hunters from using lead ammunition within the California condors’ 2,385-square-mile territory.
