Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 5463 C West Broadway Ave., Forest Lake, Minnesota 55025, USA.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 1300 West Clairmont Ave., Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701, USA.
J Wildl Dis. 2021 Oct 1;57(4):917-921. doi: 10.7589/JWD-D-20-00185.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is both an apex predator and a scavenger in Minnesota, US. Monitoring the health of Minnesota's gray wolf population is an important component of wolf management. Concern regarding whether wolves are being exposed to lead through scavenging viscera of hunter-harvested cervids left on the landscape, led to our study to determine lead-exposure rates. In fall 2012, livers from 147 hunter-harvested wolves (89 females, 58 males) were screened for lead and 20 other elements by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Ten wolves (6.8%) were exposed to lead; only one had high enough exposure (6.14 ppm) to suggest lead toxicosis. Lead exposure varied by time of harvest, with nearly all lead-exposed wolves taken in the late hunting and trapping season (from 24 November 2012 to 31 January 2013), compared with the earlier hunting-only season (3-18 November 2012). Further, eight of 10 lead-exposed wolves were taken from deer-permit areas that harvested >1 deer/km2; only two of 10 were taken where deer harvest was less. This suggests the availability of viscera on the landscape may influence exposure risk of lead to wolves. More research is needed to determine baseline levels for toxic concentrations of lead in gray wolves and to determine clinical signs of lead poisoning in wild canids.
美国明尼苏达州的灰狼（Canis lupus）既是顶级掠食者，也是食腐动物。监测明尼苏达州灰狼种群的健康状况是狼管理的重要组成部分。人们担心狼是否通过食用猎人留在景观中的被猎鹿的内脏来接触铅，这促使我们进行了这项研究，以确定铅暴露率。在 2012 年秋季，通过电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法对 147 只被猎人捕获的狼（89 只雌性，58 只雄性）的肝脏进行了铅和其他 20 种元素的筛查。有 10 只狼（6.8%）接触过铅；只有一只狼的暴露量足够高（6.14ppm），表明铅中毒。铅暴露量因收获时间而异，几乎所有铅暴露的狼都是在狩猎和诱捕季节后期（2012 年 11 月 24 日至 2013 年 1 月 31 日）捕获的，而不是在较早的仅狩猎季节（2012 年 11 月 3 日至 18 日）。此外，10 只铅暴露的狼中有 8 只来自每平方公里收获超过 1 只鹿的鹿许可证区；只有 2 只在鹿收获较少的地方被捕。这表明景观中内脏的存在可能会影响狼接触铅的风险。需要进一步研究以确定灰狼中铅的毒性浓度的基线水平，并确定野生犬科动物铅中毒的临床症状。
