Andean condors continue to suffer from lead poisoning from ammunition used by hunters across their South American range, echoing the California condor crisis.
Lead-poisoned condors experience the same progressive neurological decline as other scavengers. Given the extremely slow reproduction of condors where pairs raise only one chick every two years, each adult death has an outsized population impact. The prolonged suffering from lead poisoning in long-lived, intelligent birds represents significant individual welfare harm compounding the conservation crisis.