Important research on the levels of mercury present in Nova Scotia's coyote population is coming out of Acadia's Mallory and O'Driscoll labs. A recent article from CBC explains why the lead researchers say their findings are "a bit alarming."
Based on samples of livers from 101 Nova Scotian coyotes, Dr. Mark Mallory (Biology) and Dr. Nelson O'Driscoll (Earth and Environmental Science) found that mercury levels were higher in coyotes than those in most other land mammals in North America and Europe.
Mercury can land in coyote livers from general atmospheric contamination through activities like burning fossil fuels, and certain types of mining and production. Unfortunately for our East coast coyotes and the rest of us too southeastern Canada has been identified by researchers as an "exposure hotspot." And while there's been extensive research into the mercury levels of our Atlantic Canada aquatic pals, there's been a gap in the research about land-based animals like coyotes.
The work has, says Dr. Mallory, "been a great collaboration between provincial and federal government partners, Acadia academics, and Acadia students including the Work Skills Program." Their research has already led to Seth MacLean's ('22) BSc thesis and an article that is "getting a lot of attention from other scientists."
But this is only the beginning for the Mallory and O'Driscoll labs' work in contaminant measuring.
While coyotes are, as they said to the CBC, "walking garbage cans," their diets are extremely varied. So, Mallory and O'Driscoll would like to get a clearer picture of exactly what it is that they're ingesting that's leading to elevated mercury levels. "Coyotes are skilled carnivores," explains Dr. Mallory. "They can eat all sorts of prey in the province (birds, hares, rodents, young deer, small livestock, etc.) and vegetation (berries notably). So, there are likely very complicated routes for mercury uptake in coyotes."
In addition to increasing representation of coyote samples from Cumberland County and Eastern Shore in future research, they're also looking at expanding the range of terrestrial animals they're evaluating for mercury levels. This will allow them to get a better understanding of what the coyotes are ingesting to get their elevated levels of mercury.
Fortunately, there are a number of species already being harvested in Nova Scotia that Acadia's scientists would be able to get samples from. "For example, trappers already catch wildlife like otter and fisher and beaver, and if we can get some of the tissue from these animals annually, that's a great additional use of wildlife already harvested which helps move science forward to monitor things like mercury in the province," says Dr. Mallory.
"Our experience is that hunters and trappers in Nova Scotia have been very supportive of science for sustainable wildlife management, and in fact there is a Nova Scotia-specific Habitat Conservation Program that is generated by funds from hunting licenses and is used for conservation research and action."
Their work will continue to be a collaborative effort and will shed even more light on mercury contamination in our province.
