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Data From: Human land use drives microplastic abundance in terrestrial wildlife
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Scientists tracked wild tapirs, anteaters, and armadillos in Brazil using GPS and tested their blood for microplastics. Animals living closer to human development and waste sites had more plastic particles in their bodies, showing that our trash is contaminating wildlife far beyond cities. Since these animals share ecosystems with us, it's a warning sign about how much plastic pollution may also be entering our own bodies.
This dataset contains the movement, environmental exposure, and microplastic measurement data underlying Ferraz et al., "Human land use drives microplastic abundance in terrestrial wildlife" (Nature). This work combined high-resolution GPS tracking data from lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), and giant armadillos (Priodontes maximus) across three sites in Brazil, with in vivo microplastic measurements (particle counts, concentrations, and polymer identification via confocal Raman spectroscopy) from blood samples collected from the same individuals. For each animal, individual-level exposure metrics from GPS relocation data were derived, including weighted mean and maximum Human Footprint Index (HFI) exposure, home-range size, and distance to the nearest human development and waste management facility, to link movement ecology with systemic microplastic burden. This dataset includes raw and processed particle-level microplastic data, individual movement summaries, environmental covariate layers, and procedural blank control data used for quality assurance and quality control. Data are provided to support reproduction of all analyses reported in the associated manuscript and to enable further research on landscape drivers of microplastic exposure in free-ranging wildlife. See also: https://github.com/QuantitativeEcologyLab/microplastics_brazil
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Data From: Human land use drives microplastic abundance in terrestrial wildlife
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Scientists tracked wild tapirs, anteaters, and armadillos in Brazil using GPS and tested their blood for microplastics. Animals living closer to human development and waste sites had more plastic particles in their bodies. This suggests that the more we build up and pollute land, the more plastic works its way into wildlife, a warning sign for what might also be happening to us.
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Researchers examined feces from 12 wild animal species in western Thailand and found microplastics in over 40% of samples across eight species, including elephants, deer, and wild boar. The amount of microplastics found was linked to human activity near the animals' habitats. This demonstrates that microplastic contamination has reached even terrestrial wildlife in protected areas, entering the food chain far from obvious pollution sources.
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Researchers analyzed fecal samples from Baird's tapirs in a remote rainforest region of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and found microplastics in 68% of samples. Microplastic abundance increased by 72% between 2017 and 2018, demonstrating that plastic pollution is reaching even protected forest ecosystems and the wildlife that lives in them.
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Researchers examined microplastic accumulation in terrestrial wildlife carcasses and fecal samples from protected and non-protected areas of western Thailand, finding contamination in multiple species. The presence of microplastics in wildlife from protected areas highlights the inability of conservation boundaries to shield fauna from pervasive plastic pollution.
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