Mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) were collected in August 1980 to determine radium-226 (226Ra), lead, arsenic, fluoride, and barium concentrations. The mean 226Ra concentration (3.08 pCi/kg) was greater (P 0.05) between areas for concentrations of lead, arsenic, fluoride, and barium in muscle tissues. Radium226 concentrations and physical condition parameters were not correlated (P > 0.05). Concentrations of 22Ra in duck muscle tissues suggest that no appreciable human health hazard exists from eating mottled duck muscle tissues. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 47(2):327-333 The United States produces 39% of the world's phosphate rock in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming (Farmer and Blue 1978:585). Settling basins are used for the storage and settling of phosphatic waste clays resulting from the processing of phosphate ores (Farmer and Blue 1978: 603). These settling basins are attractive to migratory (Montalbano et al. 1978, King et al. 1980) and resident waterfowl in Florida (Montalbano 1980, Wenner and Marion 1981). Several authors (King et al. 1980, Montalbano 1980, Wenner and Marion 1981) have suggested that these areas should be intensively managed as waterfowl production and wintering sites. The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission operates a public waterfowl hunting area on some northern Florida settling areas and is contemplating management of similar areas in central Florida. The radioactive nuclides 226Ra and uranium-238 (238U) (Roessler et al. 1979) and the toxic (Bowen 1966) trace elements lead, arsenic, barium, and fluoride (V. Katari et al., unpubl. rep., PEDCO Environ. Spec., Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1974; C. W. Hendry, unpubl. rep., Governor's Office, Tallahassee, Fla., 1978) occur in association with waste clays. Because of these materials, the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission is concerned for the welfare of both the waterfowl populations using these basins and for the human populations that might use contaminated waterfowl for food. In this study, w assessed the public health implications of the consumption by humans of waterfowl exposed to elevated 226Ra and selected toxic trace elements, and determined relationships between 226Ra exposure and physical and reproductive condition of mottled ducks. We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of International Minerals and Chemical Corporation (IMC), which provided access to the study site, and J. N. Allen, Jr. and B. W. Breedlove for helpful suggestions on study design and methodology. M. Allen, L. Perrin, R. Krause, P. Chapman, G. Holder, and D. David assisted in the collection of specimens. M. Welton prepared specimens for radioactivity analysis and W. M. Hetrick performed the food habits analysis. T. King provided suggestions on statistical interpretation and performed statistical analJ. Wildl. Manage. 47(2):1983 327 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.56 on Tue, 18 Oct 2016 04:35:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 328 Toxic ELEMENTS IN MOTTLED DUCKS * Montalbano et al. yses. C. E. Roessler, J. N. Allen, Jr., and L. A. Mehrhoff reviewed the manuscript.