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Long-Term Survey of Cadmium and Lead Contamination in Japanese Black Bears Captured in Iwate Prefecture, Japan

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Abstract

Cadmium and lead were measured in liver and kidney samples of 242 Japanese black bears (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) captured from 1999 to 2014 from two local populations in Japan. The median concentration of cadmium was 0.54 (mean: 0.80) mg/kg-w.w. in liver and 7.7 (mean: 11.8) mg/kg-w.w. in kidney. The median concentration of lead was 0.24 (mean: 0.40) and 0.21 (mean: 0.32) mg/kg-w.w. in liver and kidney, respectively. Bears in the Kita-ou local population had higher concentrations of cadmium and lead than those in the Kitakami Highlands local population. No chronological change was observed in cadmium levels in tissues, but the percentage of bears whose lead levels exceeded 0.5 mg/kg-w.w. has been decreasing in recent years. Countermeasures against lead poisoning in wildlife, which were instituted in 2002, may have contributed to the decrease in lead contamination of the Japanese black bear.

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Acknowledgments

This study was a part of a project of Iwate Prefecture for the conservation and management of the Japanese black bear. PIXE analysis was conducted as a cooperative study with the Nishina Memorial Cyclotron Center, Japan Radioisotope Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Ueda 3-18-8, Morioka, 020-8550, Japan

    Itaru Sato & Shuji Tsuda

  2. Research Institute for Environmental Science and Public Health of Iwate Prefecture, Kita-iioka 1-11-16, Morioka, 020-0857, Japan

    Kiyoshi Yamauchi & Shuji Tsuda

Authors
  1. Itaru Sato
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  2. Kiyoshi Yamauchi
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  3. Shuji Tsuda
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Correspondence to Itaru Sato.

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Sato, I., Yamauchi, K. & Tsuda, S. Long-Term Survey of Cadmium and Lead Contamination in Japanese Black Bears Captured in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 97, 806–812 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-016-1942-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-016-1942-0

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