Peru: Saving The World's Biggest River Otter

"Artisanal gold mining is out of control in the Department of Madre de Dios, with all the devastation this implies. The increase in gold-mining activity along the Madre de Dios, Malinowski, and Inambari Rivers has resulted in near local extinction of the species with giant otters only surviving in tributaries and lakes where there is no mining activity," Groenendijk says, adding that this raises the question of mercury pollution from gold mining possibly "bio-accumulating in giant otters and affecting their reproductive health and survival."
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0130-hance_interview_giantriverotters.html