Mercury in eastern coyotes from Nova Scotia, Canada: Effects of geography and trophic position

Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental concern due to its wide distribution and myriad of deleterious effects on biota. We studied hepatic Hg in a widespread, top predator in the terrestrial ecosystem of Nova Scotia, Canada, the eastern coyote (Canis latrans), to determine recent concentrations, identify drivers of variation in Hg levels, and assess the utility of this species as a mercury biomonitor for this ecosystem. Coyotes feeding at higher trophic levels, and those in the south and east of the province, had higher Hg concentrations, but there was high variability within and among age-sex groupings. We conclude that coyotes may be useful biomonitors at larger regional scales (e.g., the Maritimes), but we recommend additional research on fishers (Pekania pennanti), a species which we used to compare to coyotes, and for which trophic position and Hg concentrations were surprisingly high at smaller scales within Nova Scotia.