Sentinel species are organisms, often animals, that are used to detect risks to humans by providing early warning hazards. This term is particularly applicable in the context of environmental hazards rather than those originating from other sources. Some animals may act as carers because they may be more vulnerable or have greater exposure to certain hazards than humans in the same environment. People have long observed animals for signs of impending danger or evidence of environmental threats. Plants and other living organisms have also been used for this purpose.
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Contoh historis
There are many examples of environmental effects on animals that are then manifested in humans. The classic example is "canary in the coal mine". The idea of ​​putting canaries or other warm-blooded animals in mines to detect carbon monoxide was first proposed by John Scott Haldane, in 1913 or later. Until the 20th century, coal miners brought canaries to coal mines as early warning signals for toxic gases, especially carbon monoxide. The birds, becoming more sensitive, will become ill before the miners, who will then have a chance to escape or wear a protective respirator.
In Minamata Bay, Japan, cats develop "cat dance fever" before humans are affected by eating fish contaminated with mercury. Dogs were recognized in early 1939 to be more susceptible to cancer of tonsils if they were kept in a dense urban environment. Similar studies found higher rates of disease in animals exposed to tobacco smoke. Yush? The disease is also found when poultry begins to die at an alarming rate due to polychlorinated biphenyl poisoning, though not before about 14,000 people are affected.
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Characteristics
Animal officer must have a measurable response to the danger asked, whether it is animal death, loss, or some other aspect that can be determined. Many of these species are ideally not trapped and easily handled. It is important that species ranges overlap with the range being studied. Often the ideal species is determined by the hazard characteristics.
For example, honeybees are susceptible to air pollution. Similarly both bats and swallows have been used to monitor the contamination of pesticides because of their food from insects that may have been affected by chemicals. In the same way, aquatic animals, or their direct predators, are used as sentinel species to monitor water pollution.
Some species may indicate the effects of human prior to human contaminants due to their size, their reproductive rate, or their increased exposure to contaminants.
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Poisonous gas
Canaries are iconically used in coal mines to detect the presence of carbon monoxide. The rapid speed of bird breathing, small size, and high metabolism, compared to miners, caused the birds in harmful mines to succumb before the miners, thus giving them time to take action.
Air and water pollution
A number of animals have been used to measure different types of air pollution. These include honey bees for air pollution, bivalve mollusks for surveying the quality of water online and doves for atmospheric lead. Bats and swallows have been used to monitor pesticide contamination due to their food from insects that may have been affected by chemicals.
Aquatic DDT contamination has been quantitatively measured in California fish. PCB has been measured through liver fish analysis. Toxaphene concentrations are found far from areas of use through trout analysis in the Great Lakes. Evidence of the atmospheric transport of substances affects the subsequent prohibition of its widespread use. Alligators may have been used to warn of harmful contamination in Centerville, Mississippi's retention pool.
Infectious diseases
The discovery of West Nile virus in the Western Hemisphere is heralded by epidemics of crows and other wild birds. Other emerging diseases have shown a link between animal health events and human risk, including monkeypox, SARS, and avian influenza. In plague epidemic, rats begin to die before humans.
Household poison
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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