Table 2.
Reported fur mercury (Hg) concentrations in bats of different species, ages and sexes at reference and polluted sites in Europe, Asia, and North America (data in this study shown for comparison)
| Fur Hg concentration in bat species | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Species | Sex | Age | Site | Min–max (µg Hg g−1 fwa) | Mean ± SD/SE (µg Hg g−1 fwa) | References |
| Myotis daubentonii | M/F | J/A | Southern Sweden | 0.4–2.3 | 1.2 ± 0.3 | This study |
| Rhinolophus cornutus cornutus | n.i | n.i | Japan, Subashiri | 2.6 ± 0.4b | Miura et al. (1978) | |
| n.i | n.i | Japan, Mine | 3.5 ± 1.3 | |||
| n.i | n.i | Japan, Owase | 5.0 ± 2.2 | |||
| n.i | n.i | Japan Bato | 6.3 ± 4.3 | |||
| Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum | n.i | n.i | Japan, Hiramatsu | 7.6 ± 3.4 | ||
| n.i | n.i | Japan, Mine | 5.1 ± 0.8 | |||
| n.i | n.i | Japan, Nagashima | 5.1 ± 1.7 | |||
| n.i | n.i | Japan, Ise | 6.8 ± 2.0 | |||
| Miniopterus schreibersi fuliginosus | n.i | n.i | Japan, Mine | 10.5 ± 0.9 | ||
| n.i | n.i | Japan, Numazy | 10.2 ± 1.7 | |||
| Pipistrellus abramus | n.i | n.i | Japan | 33.0 ± 6.3 | ||
| Vespertilio superans | n.i | n.i | Japan | 33.7 ± 4.2 | ||
| Myotis lucifugus | F | A | Virginia USA, Reference site | 1.4–5.5 | 3.1 ± 1.3 | Nam et al. (2012)c |
| F | A | Polluted site | 7.3–274 | 132 ± 94 | ||
| Eptesicus fuscus | F | A | Virginia USA, Reference site | 10.9 ± 0.5 | Wada et al. (2010)c | |
| F | A | Polluted site | 4.8–65.4 | 28.0 ± 4.1 | ||
| Myotis lucifugus | F | A | Canada, Nova Scotia | 0.8–47.0 | 9.3 | Little et al. (2015a, b)a |
| F | A | Canada, Prince Edward Island | 1.6–15.2 | |||
| F | A | Canada, Newfoundland | 1.0–28.3 | |||
| F | A | Canada, Labrador | 0.6–23.4 | |||
| Myotis lucifugus | n.i | n.i | Ontario, Canada | 1.5 | Hickey et al. (2001) | |
| Eptesicus fuscus | n.i | n.i | 1.5 | |||
| Myotis leibii | n.i | n.i | 5.3 | |||
| Myotis septentrionalis | n.i | n.i | 4.4 | |||
| Perimyotis subflavus | n.i | n.i | Northeastern USA | Max = 2.8 | 0.7 | Yates et al. (2013) |
| Myotis lucifugus | n.i | n.i | Max = 3.8 | 0.3 | ||
| Myotis septentrionalis | n.i | n.i | Max = 3.7 | 0.6 | ||
| Lasiurus borealis | n.i | n.i | Max = 0.9 | 0.1 | ||
| Lasiurus cinereus | n.i | n.i | Max = 0.03 | 0.02 | ||
| Miniopterus schreibersii | n.i | A | Murcia province, Spain | 0.41–2.27 | 1.13 ± 0.48 | Lison et al. (2017) |
| M | n.i | 0.68–1.95 | 1.20 ± 0.39 | |||
| F | n.i | 0.41–2.27 | 1.05 ± 0.57 | |||
| F | A | 0.41–2.27 | 0.96 ± 0.63 | |||
| F | A | 0.50–1.68 | 1.19 ± 0.50 | |||
aFur Hg levels are reported as range (min–max) or mean with standard deviation (SD) or standard error (SE)
bSpecimen preserved in alcohol in the National Science Museum, Tokyo
cPolluted sites: Hg contamination downstream from a former textile factory at Renkin Barn (South River) with estimated daily release of up to 100 pounds (45.3 kg) of mercuric sulphide from the factory
M male, F female, J juvenile, A adult, n.i. no information