Protect Wildlife Using New, Cost-effective Methods

The National Park Service intends to award a cooperative agreement to the University of California, Santa Cruz for a project titled "Protect Wildlife Using New, Cost-effective Methods." The project aims to develop novel diagnostic tools to determine if a bird was lead poisoned at the time of death and inform whether lead poisoning was a contributor/cause of mortality. The project will be conducted in multiple phases, with the UCSC ecotoxicology laboratory establishing the use of additional biomarkers to aid in the assessment of lead exposure status and diagnosis of lead-related mortality events in California condors. The project will facilitate the ability to more accurately incorporate lead exposure risk into condor survival projections. • The project will analyze approximately 300 samples in three phases. • The UCSC ecotoxicology laboratory will conduct analyses to measure levels of lead in a range of body tissues with different lead turnover rates. • The project will provide consistent methods and results that can be easily interpreted by NPS and California Condor Recovery partners. • The project will support the recovery of the California condor by reducing the threat of lead to their survival.