JOURNAL ARTICLE
LEAD CONCENTRATIONS IN SUBURBAN AND RURAL GRAY SQUIRREL (SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS) POPULATIONS
CARL R. PRATT
Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science
Vol. 62, No. 1 (September, 1988), pp. 3-5 (3 pages)
Published By: Penn State University Press
Abstract
Hair samples from twenty-one gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) collected from two different sites were analyzed for lead concentration. Hair samples were taken from live-trapped squirrels and subjected to atomic absorption spectrophotometry to determine ppm lead. The collection sites were selected to provide two possible exposure regimes based upon vehicular traffic densities: a rural location on the Wilkes-Barre Campus of the Pennsylvania State University (low exposure site) and a suburban site in Kingston, Pennsylvania (high exposure site).
Samples from the suburban site contained approximately 6.7 times the concentration of lead (x̄ = 1.22 ± 0.42 ppm) of those samples from the rural site (x̄ = 0.18 ± 0.07 ppm).