Even grizzly bears should watch what they eat. It turns outthat grizzlies that gorge themselves on salmon during the summerspawning season have much higher levels of contaminants in their bodiesthan their cousins who rely more on berries, plants and insects,according to Peter Ross of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Reportingin an article to be published Sept. 15 in the American Chemical Societyjournal, Environmental Science & Technology, Canadian researcherssay the difference in the concentration of persistent organicpollutants (POPs) is “profound” between grizzly bears who eat lots ofsalmon and those that don’t. The measurements were made by examininghair and fat samples from two groups of grizzly bears in the BritishColumbia region of Canada. One group included bears that had a steadydiet of terrestrial foods, the other group included bears that shiftedto marine food when the salmon returned from the Pacific Ocean to spawn.
Althoughthe overall contaminant concentrations in the grizzlies are lower thanmany other species of animals that consume marine food, the researchers— from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the University ofVictoria and Raincoast Conversation Society — say the reproductivewindow of the bears could be vulnerable to health impacts.
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