Eighteen-month-old adult female Peking Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were placed in the Ottawa, and St. Lawrence rivers for periods varying between 14 and 72 days during the summers of 1987, 1988 and 1989. Two stations located on Lake St. Francis were selected for establishing a time-curve for the accumulation of organochlorine pesticides (OC) and PCB in the liver. The ducks rapidly lost weight during their first 20 days in the natural environment but stabilised after about 40 days. This weight loss was caused by the stress of habitat, change, the energetic costs in searching for food and moulting. / There was a rapid increase in the number and concentration of contaminants detected in the livers of ducks exposed to pollutants in the natural environment. The concentrations found were low (99.9% of OC-PCB are under 1 mg/kg wet weight basis). These individuals were generally from 10 to 1000 times more contaminated than the control ducks for 40 days of exposure. / The use of domestic ducks as bioindicators has several advantages. They can be obtained readily and cheaply, and the sex and age of the individuals can be controlled. Since they are not very mobile and therefore are easy to locate, they provide information on the contamination (metals or OC-PCB) of specific sites. The use of Peking ducks has some limitations. There is a need for appropriate habitats to ensure their survival, and there is considerable stress caused by transferring the ducks from the breeding farm to the natural environment, thereby obliging them to search for food and exposing them to predators and poachers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22796 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Rodrigue, Jean |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Renewable Resources.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001462250, proquestno: MM05620, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds