....bullet fragments have been found in meat such as venison. In fact, it was those fragments which caused North Dakota to do a study of lead levels in humans some years ago....
This, in a nutshell, is what I find troubling. The fact that lead fragments can be recovered occasionally from carrion, does not mean it was the source of a lab measurable level of lead taken from a live healthy condor, or a recovered dead, from undisclosed causes, condor. You, yourself, mentioned that an average level of lead has been determined nationwide, in humans. I believe in California there are many water and ground sources tainted naturally with heavy metals that enter the entire wildlife food chain.
Still, there're friends of shooting and hunting that strongly support the notion that any lead trace found out in the woods are from lead hunting bullets. If lead traces can be found in humans, why can't the mantra, from friends, be, 'it may be that an occasional condor lab sample shows traces of lead, it's natural and not from lead sporting bullets'.
