ABSTRACT
Wildlif e may serve as sentinels, thereby stre ngtheni ng the case for current or futur e risks to
humans (NRC 1991; Burk hart and Gardne r 1997; Peter 1998; Sheffield et al. 1998; van der
Schali e et al. 1999; Col born an d Thay er 2000; Fox 2001). An exa mple of wildlife a s sentinels is
the obs ervation of thyroi d patho logy in wildli fe due to halogenat ed organic chemi cals that led
to studies in hum ans (Fox 2001; Karmau s 2 001). How ever, most report s of the use of an imal
sentin els of he alth effects have not provided the types and levels of e vidence ne eded before
healt h decisio ns can be based on sen tinel responses (Ra binowitz et al. 2005). Althou gh there
are diff iculties in extra polating from wildlife to humans (Stahl 1 997), they are conc eptually no
more severe than those associated with extra polating from labo ratory rats to humans.
