DIFFERENCES IN BIOACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS AND METALLOIDS BETWEEN BARBS AND CALAMUS OF TAIL FEATHERS OF WHITE BACKED VULTURES (GYPS AFRICANUS)

Current study was designed to validate the use of tail feathers as non-invasivebiomonitoring tool and to compare its barb and calamus parts for bioaccumulation of heavy metals viz.Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Hg and As in white backed vulture (Gyps africanus). A total of 8 tail feathers samplescollected from eight birds were analyzed. All the studied heavy metals except Hg and As were detectedin tail feathers of G. Africanus. We corroborated the use of tail feathers as non-invasive biomonitoringtool for all the heavy metals except Hg and As. In general, metals in feathers followed the trend asPb>Cd>Cr>Cu. Concentrations of trace metals were higher in barbs than calamus reflecting possibleexternal deposition. Comparison of heavy metals revealed non-significant (P> 0.05) differencesbetween barbs and calamus parts. We concluded that barbs of feathers are promising biomonitoringtool for metals contamination.