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Stomach flushing technique applied to quantify microplastics in Crocodilians
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A stomach-flushing technique was adapted and validated to detect and quantify microplastics in live crocodiles without harming the animals. This method advances wildlife monitoring of microplastic exposure in reptiles, showing that even crocodilians in remote habitats are ingesting plastic particles.
The impact of microplastics on wildlife is a recent problem for which methods to evaluate exposure still need development. Being able to identify and quantify microplastics (particles < 5 mm) in the gastric contents of live crocodiles allows us to evaluate exposure, at both individual and population level, and also its contribution as transporter of other contaminants. The method was validated to determine and quantify microplastics in crocodile stomach contents recovered during an experiment where a known amount of this contaminant was given to crocodiles via oral administration. Through stomach flushing we were able to recover more than 80 % of the total volume of microplastic administrated to each crocodile. In summary, the method used during the experiment consists of 1) immobilization of the crocodile; 2) extraction of microplastics from stomach contents obtained through stomach flushing; 3) separation, identification and quantification of recovered microplastic fragments using microscopy and FTIR. •••.
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