Researchers found concentrations of mercury among lions in coastal populations were three times as high as those in inland areas.
"These mercury levels might compound the impacts of trying to make it in an environment like the Santa Cruz Mountains, where there is already so much human influence, but we don't really know,"senior author Chris Wilmers, a professor of environmental studies and the director of the Puma Project, adding the situation is likely to only get worse.
"Levels will be higher 100 years from now, when the Earth's mercury budget is higher because of all the coal we're pumping into the atmosphere." Mountain lions in California's coastal regions show concentrations of mercury three times as high as those further inland.Weiss-Penzias, Wilmers and others measured levels of concentrations in mountain lions using fur and whisker samples collected from 94 coastal animals and 18 inland animals.
In the first group, mercury levels averaged out at around 1,500 parts per billion —a concentration three times as high as those further inland, which averaged less than 500 ppb. Individual lions were found to show concentrations that would be toxic to a smaller predator, such as mink or otters. Others had levels of mercury high enough to impair their ability to produce viable offspring, threatening the future of California's already vulnerable mountain lions.
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