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Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals

The widespread occurrence of litter is a severe threat to global ecosystems. We have analyzed online media, to assess the diversity of animals that are prone to getting trapped in discarded containers and check which kind of containers is the most common trap for animals. A total of 503 records from...

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Autores principales: Kolenda, Krzysztof, Pawlik, Monika, Kuśmierek, Natalia, Smolis, Adrian, Kadej, Marcin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7801720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33431925
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79549-8
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author Kolenda, Krzysztof
Pawlik, Monika
Kuśmierek, Natalia
Smolis, Adrian
Kadej, Marcin
author_facet Kolenda, Krzysztof
Pawlik, Monika
Kuśmierek, Natalia
Smolis, Adrian
Kadej, Marcin
author_sort Kolenda, Krzysztof
collection PubMed
description The widespread occurrence of litter is a severe threat to global ecosystems. We have analyzed online media, to assess the diversity of animals that are prone to getting trapped in discarded containers and check which kind of containers is the most common trap for animals. A total of 503 records from around the world (51 countries, 6 continents) have been found. These include invertebrates (17 taxa, ca.1050 dead individuals), and vertebrates (98 taxa, 496 individuals including 44 carcasses). The latter group was most frequently represented by mammals (78.5% of all cases), then reptiles (15.3%), birds (1.2%), fish (1.0%) and amphibians (0.4%). Nearly 12.5% of the determined vertebrates are classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered, according to the IUCN. Although most trapped individuals were smaller animals, bigger ones such as monitor lizards (Varanus spp.) or large carnivores were also recorded. In most cases, animals were trapped in glass or plastic jars (32.4%), drink cans (16.5%), and steel cans (16.3%). Our results demonstrate that discarded containers can be a threat to all major groups of animals. In order to address this phenomenon, it is necessary to decrease a global production of debris, implement container deposit legislation and organize repeatable cleanup actions.
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spelling pubmed-78017202021-01-13 Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals Kolenda, Krzysztof Pawlik, Monika Kuśmierek, Natalia Smolis, Adrian Kadej, Marcin Sci Rep Article The widespread occurrence of litter is a severe threat to global ecosystems. We have analyzed online media, to assess the diversity of animals that are prone to getting trapped in discarded containers and check which kind of containers is the most common trap for animals. A total of 503 records from around the world (51 countries, 6 continents) have been found. These include invertebrates (17 taxa, ca.1050 dead individuals), and vertebrates (98 taxa, 496 individuals including 44 carcasses). The latter group was most frequently represented by mammals (78.5% of all cases), then reptiles (15.3%), birds (1.2%), fish (1.0%) and amphibians (0.4%). Nearly 12.5% of the determined vertebrates are classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered, according to the IUCN. Although most trapped individuals were smaller animals, bigger ones such as monitor lizards (Varanus spp.) or large carnivores were also recorded. In most cases, animals were trapped in glass or plastic jars (32.4%), drink cans (16.5%), and steel cans (16.3%). Our results demonstrate that discarded containers can be a threat to all major groups of animals. In order to address this phenomenon, it is necessary to decrease a global production of debris, implement container deposit legislation and organize repeatable cleanup actions. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7801720/ /pubmed/33431925 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79549-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Kolenda, Krzysztof
Pawlik, Monika
Kuśmierek, Natalia
Smolis, Adrian
Kadej, Marcin
Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
title Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
title_full Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
title_fullStr Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
title_full_unstemmed Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
title_short Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
title_sort online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7801720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33431925
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79549-8
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