Amazon rainforest gold mining is poisoning scores of threatened species

A scientist uses a miniature anesthesia mask to knock out a small-eared pygmy rice rat while researching for signs of mercury contamination in animals, at the Los Amigos Biological Station, in Los Amigos, in the Madre de Dios region, Peru May 24, 2023. REUTERS/Alessandro Cinque

LOS AMIGOS BIOLOGICAL STATION, Peru (Reuters) - In a camping tent in the Peruvian jungle, four scientists crowded around a tiny patient: An Amazonian rodent that could fit in the palm of a human hand.

The researchers placed the small-eared pygmy rice rat into a plastic chamber and piped in anesthetic gas until it rolled over, asleep. Removing the creature from the chamber, they fitted it with a miniature anesthetic mask and measured its body parts with a ruler before gently pulling hairs from its back with tweezers.