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(37-60) Wild ruminants as biomonitors for environmental contamination in alpine regions in Europe. Tataruch, Frieda*,1, Beiglböck, Christoph1, Steineck, Theodora1, 1 Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Vienna, Austria ABSTRACT- We report the concentrations of several accumulating contaminants, like lead, cadmium, mercury, radionuclides etc. in body tissues of free ranging wildlife species in different European (Austria, Switzerland,Slovenia, Bulgaria) alpine regions. It's well accepted that ungulates like roe deer, chamois or ibex are suitable biomonitors for mountaineous areas. Although they occupy remote habitats with practically no industrial or agricultural use they are chronically exposed to pollutants that have been extensively dispersed across a wide geograhic area. In general, roe deer showed higher levels of heavy metals, esp. cadmium than the other species. In habitats influenced by immissions transported over long distances the cadmium concentrations in kidneys of all species were significantly greater than in areas in the central Alps. In kidneys of roe deer we found evidence for Cd induced histopathological alterations. In one region in Northern Tyrol monitoring of heavy metal contamination of three ruminant species started in 1982 and has been continued until nowadays. So far, no significant decrease of contamination levels of lead or cadmium could be proved. Key words: ruminants, heavy metals, nephrotoxicity, biomonitoring |
