News Animals

Discarded COVID-19 PPE such as masks can be deadly to wildlife

Animals around the world are eating or getting entangled in single-use masks and gloves

person holding bird with mask caught on its wing

In perhaps the first documented impact of COVID-19 litter on wildlife, this robin was found entangled in a face mask in Chilliwack, Canada, in April 2020.

Sandra Denisuk, A.-F. Hiemstra et al/Animal Biology 2021

By Anne Pinto-Rodrigues

- More than 2 years ago

A Magellanic penguin in Brazil ingested a face mask.