Fecal contamination in popular Montana backcountry area primarily attributable to wildlife or pack animals (IMAGE)

Elsevier

Fecal contamination in popular Montana backcountry area primarily attributable to wildlife or pack animals

Caption

Investigators analyzed water samples from a suite of backcountry lake outlets in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area of Montana for fecal contamination. Combining a traditional fecal bacterial assay and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), researchers found fecal contamination, but in most cases the source does not appear to derive from human feces.

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Daniel P. Pendergraph

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