A Survey on Effect of Mining Activities on Accumulation ofCd in feathers of Common chukar(Alectoris chukar)

Natural mineral layers are composed of large amounts of heavy metals which are released into the nature during the mining process. Birds will be exposed to heavy metals by direct contact, contaminated food and water and even swallowing the gravels and digesting them in their gizzard. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentration of cadmium in eathers of Alectoris chukar in Ahangaran mine and the impact of factors such as age, sex, and tissue on accumulation of heavy metals.
In this study, samples of breast and tail feathers from 9 samples in mining region and from 3 samples in control region were taken. Atomic absorption spectrometry, model SpectrAA 400, was used to measure the accumulation of heavy metals.
Findings: The results indicate that the average cadmium concentration measured in feathers of Alectoris chukar in the mineral-rich region was 2/18 μg/g, whereas this average in the control region was 0/54 μg/g. Comparisons showed that in the mining region the concentration of cadmium was slightly higher than the standard level and in the control regions it was lower than the standard level. However, this difference was not significant. Effects of type of region (mineral and non-mineral) and age (adult and immature ( on the accumulation of cadmium in the feather of Alectoris chukar were significant, but the effect of gender (male and female) was not significant.