Measuring stress in wildlife: techniques for quantifying glucocorticoids |
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Authors: | Michael J Sheriff Ben Dantzer Brendan Delehanty Rupert Palme Rudy Boonstra |
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Institution: | 1.Centre for the Neurobiology of Stress,University of Toronto Scarborough,Toronto,Canada;2.Institute for Arctic Biology,University of Alaska Fairbanks,Fairbanks,USA;3.Department of Zoology,Michigan State University,East Lansing,USA;4.Department of Biomedical Sciences/Biochemistry,University of Veterinary Medicine,Vienna,Austria |
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Abstract: | Stress responses play a key role in allowing animals to cope with change and challenge in the face of both environmental certainty
and uncertainty. Measurement of glucocorticoid levels, key elements in the neuroendocrine stress axis, can give insight into
an animal’s well-being and can aid understanding ecological and evolutionary processes as well as conservation and management
issues. We give an overview of the four main biological samples that have been utilized blood, saliva, excreta (feces and
urine), and integumentary structures (hair and feathers)], their advantages and disadvantages for use with wildlife, and some
of the background and pitfalls that users must consider in interpreting their results. The matrix of choice will depend on
the nature of the study and of the species, on whether one is examining the impact of acute versus chronic stressors, and
on the degree of invasiveness that is possible or desirable. In some cases, more than one matrix can be measured to achieve
the same ends. All require a significant degree of expertise, sometimes in obtaining the sample and always in extracting and
analyzing the glucocorticoid or its metabolites. Glucocorticoid measurement is proving to be a powerful integrator of environmental
stressors and of an animal’s condition. |
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