Researchers measured the concentration of microplastics in the blood of 47 animals: 26 lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) and 21 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla). The scientists found that, on average, the creatures carry similar levels of plastic to many humans ' roughly 74 particles per millilitre of blood. The animals that lived closest to human infrastructure and waste-management facilities had the highest levels of microplastics in their blood. But even those living more than 100 kilometres from a waste sites and 65 kilometres from human infrastructure showed traces of the pollutants. This indicates that plastics can reach wildlife living far from where the pollution originates, says study co-author Marcia de Almeida Monteiro Melo Ferraz, a conservation scientist at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan in Kelowna, Canada. Microplastics are tiny particles (smaller than five millimetres) with many different chemical compositions. They can travel through the...
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