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Mercury Pollution Can Make Male Birds Homosexual

December 1st, 2010 12:17 admin Leave a comment Go to comments





“Methylmercury [CH3Hg] is the most toxic form” of mercury, the U.S. Geological Survey writes in its briefer about mercury in the environment. In people, who primarily ingest the compound by eating contaminated fish and wildlife, “it affects the immune system, alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the nervous system, including coordination and the senses of touch, taste, and sight.” The Everglades, where the ibises live, possess the year-round warm climate that’s ideal for the methylation of elemental mercury into methylmercury, the BBC reports.

Frederick and Jayasena can’t say for sure what mechanism underlies mercury’s ability to scramble an ibis’s sexual preferences. Mercury is known to disrupt hormonal activity, and that may be the key. But sorting out a particular effect is not easy, nor is predicting how it manifests in other species.


Image: UF / IFAS

Source: Mercury Pollution Can Make Male Birds Homosexual

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