Sex, Diet, and the Social Environment: Factors Influencing Hair Cortisol Concentration in Free-Ranging Black Bears (Ursus americanus)

Lafferty, Diana J. R.; Laudenslager, Mark L.; Mowat, Garth; Heard, Doug; Belant, Jerrold L.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141489

Cited by 44 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(96 reference statements)

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“…Additional studies in grizzly bears (Macbeth et al 2010), humans (Webb et al 2010), caribou and reindeer (Ashley et al 2011) support these findings. On the other hand, Lafferty et al (2015) determined variations in HCC between sexes in black bears, with female HCC ranging from 0.6 to 10.7 pg/ml compared to male HCC which ranged from 0.5 to 35.1 pg/ml. These differences are likely to be a consequence of multiple interacting factors, e.g., differences in the use of food resources, differences in nutritional needs and sex-based social environment differences (Lafferty et al 2015).…”

Section: Sex and Neuter Statusmentioning

confidence: 98%

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Mesarčová¹,

Kottferová²,

Skurková³

et al. 2017

Vet. Med.

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Cortisol, which is produced in the adrenal glands, is an endogenous glucocorticoid hormone that delivers its hormonal message to cells by acting on glucocorticoid receptors. It is one of the main stress hormones responsible for stress responses in animals and humans, and its overproduction is characteristic of certain diseases. While acute stress disorder can be evaluated by means of measuring the cortisol concentration in blood and urine, chronic stress disorder can be detected by monitoring the cortisol concentration in fur or hair. Hair collection is simple, inexpensive and non-invasive, and can be performed easily and rapidly; thus, it appears to be a suitable method for determining the level of stress in dogs from shelters, abused dogs or dogs involved in different types of animal interactions. Since it is a relatively new method, monitoring cortisol in hair or fur requires further research in order to definitively prove its efficacy, and possibly to determine reference range values for different breeds of dogs.

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Section: Sex and Neuter Statusmentioning

confidence: 98%

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Mesarčová¹,

Kottferová²,

Skurková³

et al. 2017

Vet. Med.

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“…), and stress level (Lafferty et al. ). These spoors can be collected using minimally invasive methods (e.g., Piggott and Taylor or Henry and Russello , also termed “noninvasive”), over vast areas, and by non‐specialist participants like citizen scientists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic tagging in the Anthropocene: scaling ecology from alleles to ecosystems

Lamb

Ford

Proctor³

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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The Anthropocene is an era of marked human impact on the world. Quantifying these impacts has become central to understanding the dynamics of coupled human‐natural systems, resource‐dependent livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. Ecologists are facing growing pressure to quantify the size, distribution, and trajectory of wild populations in a cost‐effective and socially acceptable manner. Genetic tagging, combined with modern computational and genetic analyses, is an under‐utilized tool to meet this demand, especially for wide‐ranging, elusive, sensitive, and low‐density species. Genetic tagging studies are now revealing unprecedented insight into the mechanisms that control the density, trajectory, connectivity, and patterns of human–wildlife interaction for populations over vast spatial extents. Here, we outline the application of, and ecological inferences from, new analytical techniques applied to genetically tagged individuals, contrast this approach with conventional methods, and describe how genetic tagging can be better applied to address outstanding questions in ecology. We provide example analyses using a long‐term genetic tagging dataset of grizzly bears in the Canadian Rockies. The genetic tagging toolbox is a powerful and overlooked ensemble that ecologists and conservation biologists can leverage to generate evidence and meet the challenges of the Anthropocene.

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“…Wildlife GC research increasingly employs alternative (non-plasma) sample types such as feces and hair for such studies (e.g., Lafferty et al, 2015;Putman et al, 2015;Terwissen et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-year longitudinal profiles of cortisol and corticosterone recovered from baleen of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis)

Hunt

Lysiak

Moore

et al. 2017

General and Comparative Endocrinology

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Research into stress physiology of mysticete whales has been hampered by difficulty in obtaining repeated physiological samples from individuals over time. We investigated whether multi-year longitudinal records of glucocorticoids can be reconstructed from serial sampling along full-length baleen plates (representing ~10 years of baleen growth), using baleen recovered from two female North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) of known reproductive history. Cortisol and corticosterone were quantified with immunoassay of subsamples taken every 4 cm (representing ~60 d time intervals) along a full-length baleen plate from each female.In both whales, corticosterone was significantly elevated during known pregnancies (inferred from calf sightings and necropsy data) as compared to intercalving intervals; cortisol was significantly elevated during pregnancies in one female but not the other. Within intercalving intervals, corticosterone was significantly elevated during the first year (lactation year) and/or the second year (post-lactation year) as compared to later years of the intercalving interval, while cortisol showed more variable patterns. Cortisol occasionally showed brief high elevations ("spikes") not paralleled by corticosterone, suggesting that the two glucocorticoids might be differentially responsive to certain stressors. Generally, immunoreactive corticosterone was present in higher concentration in baleen than immunoreactive cortisol; corticosterone:cortisol ratio was usually >4 and was highly variable in both individuals. Further investigation of baleen cortisol and corticosterone profiles could prove fruitful for elucidating long-term, multi-year patterns in stress physiology of large whales, determined retrospectively from stranded or archived specimens. Hunt et al. -Baleen Hormones 3 HIGHLIGHTS• Immunoreactive cortisol and corticosterone are detectable in whale baleen• Single baleen plates contain multi-year longitudinal time series of glucocorticoids• Glucocorticoids tend to be elevated in baleen growth coincident with pregnancy• Corticosterone was present in baleen at much greater concentration than cortisol

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Sex, Diet, and the Social Environment: Factors Influencing Hair Cortisol Concentration in Free-Ranging Black Bears (Ursus americanus)

Cited by 44 publications

References 59 publications

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Genetic tagging in the Anthropocene: scaling ecology from alleles to ecosystems

Multi-year longitudinal profiles of cortisol and corticosterone recovered from baleen of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis)

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