intensive study area (Moor and Bradley, 1974).

Permanent live-

trapping grids were established in the study areas.

Utilizing cap-

ture-recapture techniques and a system of toe-clipping to enable
individual recognition of animals, data on population densities,
biomass, and seasonal activities were gathered.
Radioanalysis

Individual animals known to be residents in the study areas for at
least three months were captured, sacrificed, and taken to the CETO
building in Mercury, where they were autopsied.

Animals were also

collected off-site for analysis following the same procedures used in
NAEG study areas.

Tissue samples for radioassay included pelt or

skin, GI tract, and carcass.

Laboratory procedures for preparation

of tissue samples have been reported (Moor and Bradley,

1974)

and

included dipping animals in hot paraffin wax to minimize crosscontamination of respective subsamples.
Levels of 241an and 2395,

in the tissue samples were determined by LFE Environmental Analysis
Laboratories, Richmond, California.
Hematological Studies
The following procedures were used to obtain base line hematological
data from animals collected off-site and will be used to process
resident animals collected in NAEG intensive study areas.
Animals were captured alive utilizing Sherman live traps or nooses

and returned to the laboratory and examined within 24 hrs of capture.
Blood was obtained from rodents by a cardiac puncture using ether as
an anesthetic.

Blood was obtained from lizards by decapitation.

In

all cases, blood was, collected in heparanized (ammonium sulfate)
syringes.

All analyses were done in duplicate, and any test exceeding

a 1% difference was repeated.

All analyses were accomplished follow-

ing standard methods (Helper, 1966).

55

Select target paragraph3