Exposure of brown hare (lepus europaeus p.) population to harmful effect of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in the food chain due to anthropogenic factors.

Abstract

Abstract: Numerous anthropogenic impacts result in the reduction of some species of game, which inhabit different areas with intensive agricultural production, i.e. agrobiotop. One of these effects is ollution of the environment by heavy metals, i.e. lead and cadmium. An animal species that can be a good biomonitor in order to define the presence of these heavy metals in the food chain is the hare Lepus europaeus P. This paper compares the results of several authors on the presence of heavy metals in the liver in order to determine the significance of anthropogenic effects on the hare. The paper describes the conditions in the environments where hares were exposed to intensive agricultural production, industrial pollution and pollution caused as a result of ore mining. According to the results shown, high concentrations of lead and cadmium can have detrimental effects on the reproductive performance and the number of hare according to (Haleci et al., 2017), especially when it comes to the proximity of the ore exploitation site. From the aspect of industrial pollution, higher levels of presence of heavy metals are evident, but the effects are also dependent on other factors that are not anthropogenic, such as the natural presence of heavy metals in the soil.