Grass is not always greener: rodenticide exposure of a threatened species near marijuana growing operations

Authors

Alan B. Franklin, USDA-APHIS-WS National Wildlife Research CenterFollow
Peter C. Carlson, Colorado State University - Fort CollinsFollow
Angela Rex, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Jeremy T. Rockwelt, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
David Garza, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Emily Culhane, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Steven F. Volker, USDA-APHIS-WS National Wildlife Research CenterFollow
Robert J. Dusek, National Wildlife Health Center
Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, National Wildlife Health CenterFollow
Mourad W. Gabriel, Integral Ecology Research Center
Katherine E. Horak, National Wildlife Health Center

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

BMC Res Notes (2018) 11:94

Comments

© The Author(s) 2018

Open access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3206-z

Abstract

Marijuana (Cannabis spp.) growing operations (MGO) in California have increased substantially since the mid-1990s. One environmental side-effect of MGOs is the extensive use of anticoagulant rodenticides (AR) to prevent damage to marijuana plants caused by wild rodents. In association with a long-term demographic study, we report on an observation of brodifacoum AR exposure in a threatened species, the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), found freshly dead within 669–1347 m of at least seven active MGOs.