Mercury content in the fur of jaguars (Panthera onca) from two areas under different levels of gold mining impact in the Brazilian Pantanal

The Pantanal is the largest inland wetland in the world and is under increasing anthropogenic threats, including long-term regionally intensive gold miningpractices. Gold miningactivities are known to cause the release of harmful pollutants such as mercury (Hg) to the surrounding environment. Jaguars( Panthera onca(Linnaeus, 1758)) are apex predators, and therefore show great potential to accumulate Hg by biomagnification. We hypothesize that total Hg content in the fur of jaguarsfrom two sites within the Brazilian Pantanal would be significantly different as a function of distance from active gold miningoperations. The Hg content was determined by fluorescence spectrometry. The mean ± SD Hg content in jaguarsfrom the study site influenced by gold mining(SB) was compared to jaguarssampled in the area free of gold miningactivities (CA) using a one-way ANOVA. The mean Hg content in jaguarsfrom SB (673.0 ± 916.8 µg g-1) is significantly different from jaguarssampled in CA (29.7 ± 23.3 µg g-1), p = 0.03. The maximum recorded content of Hg was 2,010.4 ± 150.5 µg g-1, highest level ever recorded in a wild animal. The data indicate that Hg is an important threat to jaguarswithin at-risk regions of the Pantanal.