The Associated Press
Feb 15, 2006
PHOENIX - Two California condors captured in the Vermilion Cliffs area northeast of the Grand Canyon are being treated at the Phoenix Zoo for lead poisoning. One of the giant birds is a 9-year-old female and the other is a 3-year-old male. Typically, field biologists try to treat the animals by capturing them and injecting them with calcium versenate, which helps the birds expel the lead. But if the lead lodges in a bird's stomach, the animal needs to be taken to the animal hospital at the zoo where they will be treated, monitored and X-rayed. Surgery may be necessary...
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