In this photo provided by the Ventana Wildlife Society, California condor No. 375 soars over the hills of Big Sur, Calif., after being treated for lead poisoning and re-released on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Nearly a year after the California Legislature banned lead bullets in counties where California condors fly, lead poisoning appears to have has dropped among the endangered animals but it remains their No. 1 killer.
FILE - This 2003 file photo provided on March 13, 2009 by Pinnacles National Monument shows a California Condor who was brought to the Los Angeles Zoo on Friday, March 13 for treatment of lead poisoning. The bird, number 286, was the old man of the park's California condor restoration program. Hatched in a zoo, he learned to live in the wild, a hopeful sign the majestic birds' population could rise again. But in recent months during a forage for a carcass that took the endangered vulture above Pinnacles' rocky spires and nearby hunting ranches, he got lead poisoning. No. 286 recently died at the Los Angeles Zoo.
