A new study published in Nature found that an alarming number of white-tailed ptarmigan are suffering from acute cadmium poisoning. Cadmium toxicity causes kidney and liver dysfunction, brittle bones, and adversely affects reproduction and survival. Lead author James R. Larison, an Oregon State University professor and alpine ecologist, said the findings are not unlike those that linked the pesticide DDT to a problem of thin-eggshells in the peregrine falcon three decades ago. The implications of th e toxicity go beyond a single species. They act as biological pumps, increasing the concentrations of cadmium by two orders of magnitude.
Birds eat a lo t of willow, especially in the winter when other foods are scarce.
Larison said the human health risk from eating ptarmigan likely is small, unless the internal organs are consumed. But, he added, many people eat vegetables grown in the area and these could pose a risk to human health. The former director of Sea Grant Communications at Oregon State University, Larison has spent the past four years at Cornell University pursuing his doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology. His doctoral study was funded primarily by the National Ge ographic Society. Other authors in the Nature article include Gene Likens, director of the Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, and J.G. Crock, a chemist with t he U.S. Geological Survey.