Utah’s hunting season is in full swing, and those looking to bag wildlife in southwest Utah could also walk away with an $800 gift card for outdoor equipment while also helping some of the region’s most endangered species.
Zion Unit hunters who show the lead-free ammunition they are using for hunting or provide proof that they removed all the remains of the animal they harvested from the field at a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources check station this month can enter to win the prize, which was donated to the agency by The Peregrine Fund.
State wildlife officials plan to set up their station at the intersection of Yellowjacket Road and Hancock Road, approximately 3 miles north of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park near Kanab, on several occasions this month. It will be open from 9 a.m. to dusk this Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, as well as Oct. 18-20 and Oct. 25-26. The unit includes a large portion of Iron, Kane and Washington counties.
“Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death for free-flying condors in Utah and Arizona. We are very grateful for all the hunters who are taking steps to prevent secondary impacts to scavenging wildlife, including eagles and California condors,” said Danielle Finlayson, a conservation biologist for the division’s southern region, in a statement.
Utah has offered incentives for Zion Unit hunters to switch to lead-free ammunition since 2011, primarily to protect the California condor and other scavengers like hawks and eagles that can become sick or die from eating the remains of wildlife shot with lead ammunition.
It’s considered one of the factors contributing to the California condor’s population decline, which pushed the species to the brink of extinction only a few decades ago. Only 22 condors were living in the wild globally by 1982, before researchers embarked on a captive breeding program that has helped the species rebound to over 500 birds globally today.
The program celebrated its 1,000th condor chick to hatch in 2019, with 1K, a male that hatched at Zion National Park. However, 1K died last year from what was ultimately determined to be lead poisoning. Wildlife officials noted that he became one of over 50 condors from the Utah-Arizona flock to die of lead poisoning since 1996.
An outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, along with a pair of recent poaching cases, also impacted the Utah-Arizona flock, reducing its overall count from 116 in 2022 to 87 at the latest count.
The recent setback put Utah’s lead-free ammunition program back into the spotlight. On top of a potential $800 gift card, Utah wildlife officials offer coupons to all any-legal-weapon big game permit holders within the Zion Unit for free or discounted lead-free ammunition since the unit overlaps with the flock’s habitat.
“The Hunters Helping Condors collaborative effort demonstrates one of the ways that hunters are at the forefront of wildlife conservation,” Finlayson added.