Study finds mercury prevalent in many western fish
...ne on how different levels of mercury affect mink, otter and related animals. Nevertheless, the survey found that 93 percent of the streams and rivers with large piscivores exceeded that level of mercury deemed "protective" for fish-eating mammals. Conducting the study with Herlihy and Hughes were Spencer...Otter research gives insight into lead pollution
...ding important new information about the secretive otter species, post-mortems on otters killed by cars sin...ime, reflecting declining emissions from car fuel: otter bone lead levels in 2004 were less than a quarter of those in 1992." Dr. Chadwick stresses that t...Exxon Valdez oil found in tidal feeding grounds of ducks, sea otters
... researchers estimated that in a given year, a sea otter digging three pits a day searching for clams and other prey would probably come into contact with Exxon Valdez oil at least once every two months. However, sea otters dig thousands of pits a year, and Short suspects they actually could be encounter...Abalones along Pacific coast may owe their huge, dinner-plate size to sea otters
...e divers, who typically despise the California sea otter because of its voracious appetite for the largest ...al fishery. A surge in the last century in the sea otter population, however, killed off the commercial abalone industry along the central and southern Calif...Otter adaptations: How do otters remain sleek and warm
...guish one species from another," says Weisel. "But otter hair is so different that it caught my attention."...es like a down jacket," explains Weisel. A common otter behavior, next to their playfulness, is their constant grooming. This behavior is another important ...Introduced foxes transformed vegetation on Aleutian Islands from lush grasslands to tundra
...s a way to supplement the declining harvest of sea otter pelts. But the practice escalated between the 1890s and the 1930s, when the U.S. government worked to establish fox farming businesses on the islands. Mostly arctic foxes and smaller numbers of red foxes were introduced to more than 400 islands. Byr...Hudson's Bay Company fur trapping policies set stage for modern environmental struggles
...er strategies along the Northwest coast, where sea otter pelts were at the center of the fur trade. Hudson...the company's focus on profits, stocks of both sea otter and beaver declined west of the Cascade Mountains. Schefke said the company considered and tried ...