Elemental hair analysis of Japanese macaques transplanted to the United States

Abstract

One of the world’s best studied troops of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) was captured intact at Arashiyama, Japan and transplanted to a brushland savannah area near Laredo, Texas, in 1972. The transplantation provided a unique opportunity to study the biological responses of this troop to a drastically different environment than the one in which it evolved. We investigated one biological response, the metabolism of nutrient, and non-nutrient elements, by neutron activation analysis (NAA) of hair from 88 of the transplanted monkeys nine months after transplantation. Many of the elements mammals metabolize are deposited in hair. Hair analysis is therefore a measure of these elements the mammal encounters in its environment. Hair concentration of S and Cl were found to increase with animal age at the 95% confidence level, and hair concentrations of Hg, Se, and I were found to decrease with animal age at the 95% confidence level. Male hair had more Zn and less Se than female hair at the 95% confidence level. Comparison of this information with similar information on the sister troop in Japan and on other troops will provide some indication of the homeostatic ability of this primate species to cope with different exposure regimes of certain elements. Such information is of general interest where pollution and other cultural activities are changing environmental levels of many elements.