It is clear that there is a high possibility of the exchange of love between birds' male and mercury poisoning

ByBobdole 369

Homosexuality exists not only in the human world but also in wild animals,ShilohokiAs a result of the experiment, it became clear that there is a high possibility that the pairs of same sex occurred are the result of mercury poisoning.

In the experiment conducted this time, it is found that mercury has an influence on birds widely though human beings and other animals are not covered by the results, but silkoki to which mercury is administered The change in breeding behavior itself was found to have made male-female nests and so on.

Details of the experiment are as follows.Mercury poisoning makes male birds homosexual - environment - 01 December 2010 - New Scientist

A research result that the male polyphyllium diet has mixed with mercury even at low level, that it began to make pairs with male rather than female was published. This is the first case that pollutants have found to change the sexual preferences of animals.

Many chemicals can make male female or reduce reproductive ability, but males affected by these substances are affected and still prefer females. But among mercury, methylmercury is particularly toxic, disturbing the habit of wild birds raising children, it has a stronger influence than other pollutants and inhibits breeding.

In order to investigate the influence of mercury on the pairing of Shirokotake, Professor Peter Frederick of University of Florida and Professor Nilmini Jayasena of Peradeniya University of Sri Lanka captured 160 young Syrupists from South Florida and used for food containing methyl mercury We conducted comparative experiments and carried out thorough observations.

Syrup was divided into four groups according to the amount of methyl mercury contained in the feed. The first group, on American standards, ate a meat containing 0.3 ppm methylmercury, which is obviously too high for humans to ingest. The second group gave less than 0.1 ppm, and the third group gave a feed containing mercury of 0.05 ppm (the amount that birds would consume in nature). And the fourth group was given a food that had no mercury at all.

There was a difference in the amount of administration, that the three groups given a feed containing methylmercury had significantly more homosexual male than the group who ate the mercury-free food. Male pairs made nests together and lived together for several weeks. Higher doses of mercury increased homosexual males, while groups given 0.3 ppm of mercury said 55 percent of male tried to make homosexuals and pairs. It means that 81 percent of the nests made by the group to which mercury was administered occupied the homosexual male.


ByMauricholas / Maureen Leong-Kee

Meanwhile, methylmercury also affected the pairing of male and female, few courtship behavior, poor child rearing. They say they are already known to be caused by methylmercury poisoning. "As a worst case scenario, this will reduce the birthrate of the young Shirochiki by 50 percent." Professor Frederick is concerned about this.

However, Tony Scheuhammer of the Canadian Ministry of the Environment's National Wildlife Research Center in Ontario, Ottawa, says, "The view that mercury has an influence on making courtship behavior and pairing is new." And, "Other birds are probably affected by mercury as well, but it is not clear at all whether or not other kinds of animals are affected similarly," experiments against Toki this time We talked about both Professor Frederick and Professor Scheuhammer who did.

In particular, despite several long-term studies, there is no particular evidence to prove the theory that human homosexuality increases due to mercury poisoning. "If you have an obvious result like a toki in an experiment that you have been doing to humans, you should already be making a major presentation," as Professor Frederick says, the results of this experiment are It seems that it does not extend to other kinds of animals, but if there is a possibility that ecology may collapse due to mercury poisoning, improvement of environmental pollution is wanted.