Assemblymember Pedro Nava’s bill banning lead ammunition from portions of the California condor’s Southern California habitat passed the state Senate on 9/4, by a margin of 23-15. If the governor signs it, the Ridley-Tree Condor Protection Act will require that non-lead centerfire rifle bullets be used to shoot big game and coyotes in Department of Fish and Game hunting zones. The endangered giant vultures, 70 of whom now live in the wild in Southern California, eat the bullet fragments left in the carcasses of slain animals.
