Who's shooting endangered condors?

Bruce Robertson, a private detective, had little to go on. Two gunshot victims, one soon to be dead, both found in the Big Sur wilderness. The victims had brown eyes, ruddy faces and 9-foot wingspans.

Ordinarily Robertson, of Los Angeles, hunts down philandering husbands and ferrets out insurance violators. But his skills are being tested in this latest mystery: the shootings of two endangered California condors.

"It's a tough case," said Robertson, 58, as he loaded a gallon jug of water, topographical maps and other provisions into the trunk of his car. "The shooter could be anywhere."

Biologists have been coaxing condors back from the brink of extinction since the early 1980s, when 22 birds remained. Since then, the California condor count has steadily climbed. The current tally is 336, with more than half of those living in the wild in Arizona, Baja California, California and Utah, and the rest living in zoos and bird sanctuaries. Those in the wild wear numbered ID tags and radio transmitters for tracking.

In March, scientists captured the two ill-looking condors, which were full of shotgun pellets. In addition, Condor 286, known as Pinns (because he was one of the oldest condors released at Pinnacles National Monument), and Condor 375 suffered from lead poisoning that biologists believe to be a result of eating bullet-laced animal carcasses left by hunters.

While the shotgun pellets lodged in the birds concerned scientists, it was the lead in their blood that proved more deadly. On May 11, Pinns died of lead poisoning at the Los Angeles Zoo. Condor 375 recovered and was recently released back into the wild.

News of two lead-riddled condors set phones ringing at environmental groups' offices across the West.

"It was really distressing to me," said Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson. "As soon as I heard, I knew we needed to get a dragnet and resources out there to capture this shooter." Within 48 hours, Robertson was on the case — at the invitation of the center — and environmental groups, foundations and the state government had raised $40,500 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the gunman or gunmen. Violation of the federal Endangered Species Act can result in a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Robertson stopped at a gun shop in King City, some 150 miles south of San Francisco, introducing himself to the owner as Bruce, a nature-photography buff.

The men got to discussing a new state ban on lead bullets, and the gun-shop owner expressed his disgust with it. The ban was instituted in July in condor territory, which stretches along the coastal ranges from Silicon Valley south to Los Angeles County. Condors often feast on the carrion of animals shot — often with lead bullets — by hunters or ranchers. Fourteen condors have died from lead poisoning in California and 12 more in Utah and Arizona since the condor conservation program began, in 1982.

Law-enforcement officials are conducting their own investigation.

Meanwhile, Robertson has drawn a red circle on his map where he thinks the shooting occurred. "There's definitely smoke around here," he said steering around tortuous turns east of King City. "And where there's smoke, there's always fire."