Abstract
Red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis) are native to eastern Hokkaido (island population), in contrast to the mainland, which migrates between the Amur River basin and eastern China–Korea peninsula. During the 1990s we found that Red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido were highly contaminated with mercury: however, the source was unknown. We investigated the time trend of mercury contamination in Red-crowned cranes. Total mercury levels in the livers and kidneys from cranes dead in the 2000s were lower than those dead in the 1990s. Feather is a major pathway of mercury excretion for many bird species and is used as an indicator of blood mercury level during feather growth. As internal organs from the specimens collected before 1988 were not available, we analyzed the flight feather shavings from stuffed Red-crowned cranes dead in 1959–1987 and found that the mercury level of feathers from cranes dead in the 1960s and 1970s was not more than those from the cranes dead in the 2000s. These results suggest that mercury contamination in Red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido decreased temporally during the 1990s–2000s. This indicates the possible occurrence of some mercury pollution in Red-crowned cranes’ habitat in this region in the 1990s or before.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. George Archibald for critical reading of this manuscript, Dr. Mizuno for valuable suggestions and Ms. Tamura for technical assistance. We are grateful to all those who have provided feather shavings from stuffed Red-crowned cranes, including Hokkaido University Natural History Museum (Botanic Garden), Historical Museum of Hokkaido, Kushiro City Museum, Nemuro City Historical Museum, Nakashibetsu Municipal folk Museum and Notsuke Peninsula Nature Center. This work was funded by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan (H.T., T.H.), Support Project to Assist Private Universities in Developing Bases for Research from MEXT, Japan (H.T.), Cooperative Research from Rakuno Gakuen University 2008 (T.H.), Ministry of Environment, Japan (K.M., H.M.), Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund (K.M.), and the Suntory Fund for Birds Conservation (K.M.).
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Teraoka, H., Tagami, Y., Kudo, M. et al. Changes of Mercury Contamination in Red-Crowned Cranes, Grus japonensis, in East Hokkaido, Japan. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 63, 153–160 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-011-9742-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-011-9742-3