Stress in Wildlife Species: Noninvasive Monitoring of Glucocorticoids

Romano, Marta; Rodas, Alba Zulema; Valdéz, Ricardo; Hernández, Sandra E.; Galindo, Francisco; Canales, Domingo; Brousset, Dulce

doi:10.1159/000258726

Cited by 37 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Direct interactions with humans (human induced trauma and hit by automobile categories) were less common than indirect interactions (dog and cat categories) in this population, but still made up 11% of the total cases. Pathogen pollution, noise pollution, and environmental pollution have also been shown to lead to wildlife morbidity and mortality [1], [15]–[17], but this study provides an additional explanation that “predator pollution,” by means of introducing domestic cats and dogs to wildlife areas, may also be having a profound and damaging effect. Of all cases presented, approximately 20% were due to interactions with domestic pets, specifically cats (14% of all cases) and dogs (6% of all cases).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Major Anthropogenic Causes for and Outcomes of Wild Animal Presentation to a Wildlife Clinic in East Tennessee, USA, 2000–2011

Schenk

Souza

2014

PLoS ONE

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To determine the reasons for presentation and outcome of wildlife cases in East Tennessee, a retrospective analysis was performed using 14,303 records from cases presented to the wildlife clinic of the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital between 2000 and 2011. The cases were first categorized into amphibian/non-avian reptile, mammal, or avian and then classified into groups based on the primary admitting/presenting sign. There are a variety of reasons animals were presented to the clinic, and some were directly or indirectly anthropogenic in origin, including cat related, dog related, hit by automobile, and other human encounters leading to trauma; of the cases reviewed, 4,443 (31.1%) presented for one of these 4 reasons. Overall case fatality risk in regard to these 4 admitting/presenting signs was 0.519 for the amphibian/non-avian reptile cases, 0.675 for mammal cases, and 0.687 for avian cases. This study confirms the importance of monitoring wildlife morbidity and mortality and of focusing efforts to reduce the anthropogenic threat on native habitats and resident wildlife populations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Major Anthropogenic Causes for and Outcomes of Wild Animal Presentation to a Wildlife Clinic in East Tennessee, USA, 2000–2011

Schenk

Souza

2014

PLoS ONE

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“…Faecal cortisol (and/or metabolite) determinations in free-ranging animals have become an important tool in wildlife conservation (Keay et al, 2006; Millspaugh and Washburn, 2004; Romano et al, 2010). Nonetheless, faecal cortisol can also be measured in captive animals using collection techniques such as those discussed above for urine.…”

Section: Methodological Issues In Measuring the Hpa Stress Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Stress, the HPA axis, and nonhuman primate well-being: A review

Novak

Hamel

Kelly

et al. 2013

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

123

108

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Numerous stressors are routinely encountered by wild-living primates (e.g., food scarcity, predation, aggressive interactions, and parasitism). Although many of these stressors are eliminated in laboratory environments, other stressors may be present in that access to space and social partners is often restricted. Stress affects many physiological systems including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, which is the focus of this review. The glucocorticoid, cortisol, is the ultimate output of this system in nonhuman primates, and levels of this hormone are used as an index of stress. Researchers can measure cortisol from several sampling matrices that include blood, saliva, urine, faeces, and hair. A comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each sampling matrix is provided to aid researchers in selecting an optimal strategy for their research. Stress and its relationship to welfare have been examined in nonhuman primates using two complimentary approaches: comparing baseline cortisol levels under different conditions, or determining the reactivity of the system through exposure to a stressor. Much of this work is focused on colony management practices and developmental models of abnormal behaviour. Certain colony practices are known to increase stress at least temporarily. Both blood sampling and relocation are examples of this effect, and efforts have been made to reduce some of the more stressful aspects of these procedures. In contrast, other colony management practices such as social housing and environmental enrichment are hypothesized to reduce stress. Testing this hypothesis by comparing baseline cortisol levels has not proved useful, probably due to “floor” effects; however, social buffering studies have shown the powerful role of social housing in mitigating reactions of nonhuman primates to stressful events. Models of abnormal behaviour come from two sources: experimentally induced alterations in early experience (e.g., nursery rearing), and the spontaneous development of behavioural pathology (e.g., self-injurious behaviour). Investigators have often assumed that abnormal behaviour is a marker for stress and thus such monkeys are predicted to have higher cortisol levels than controls. However, an emerging finding is that monkeys with abnormal behaviour are more likely to show a pattern of lowered cortisol concentrations which may reflect either an altered set point or a blunting of the stress response system. These findings parallel human clinical studies demonstrating that neuropsychiatric disorders may be associated with either increased or decreased activity of the HPA system, depending on the aetiology and manifestation of the disorder and their potential influence in provoking allostatic shifts in system functioning.

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“…EIAs are used frequently to investigate the potential links between stress and animal behaviour (Whitten, Brockman & Stavisky 1998), reproductive biology (Lasley 1985;Lasley & Kirkpatrick 1991;Peter, Kapustin & Critser 1996), and animal welfare (Romano et al 2010;Pirovino et al 2011). They also have important applications for addressing conservation issues (Foley, Papageorge & Wasser 2001;Millspaugh & Washburn 2004;Cockrem 2005;Wasser & Hunt 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-invasive monitoring of physiological stress in the Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): Validation of a fecal glucocorticoid assay and methods for practical application in the field

Shutt

Setchell

Heistermann

2012

General and Comparative Endocrinology

143

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(2012) 'Non-invasive monitoring of physiological stress in the Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) : validation of a fecal glucocorticoid assay and methods for practical application in the eld.', General and comparative endocrinology., 179 (2). pp. 167-177. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2012.08.008Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in General and Comparative Endocrinology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A denitive version was subsequently published in General and Comparative Endocrinology, 179, 2, 2012, 10.1016/j.ygcen.2012 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. They can be powerful conservation tools which allow acquisition of otherwiseunobtainable physiological information from both captive animal breeding and endangered wild animals in remote forest habitats, such as great apes. However, methods for hormone measurement, extraction and preservation need to be adapted and validated for remote field settings.2). In preparation for a field-study of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in the Central African Republic we used samples from captive gorillas collected around opportunistic stressful situations to test whether four different glucocorticoid EIAs reflected adrenocortical activity reliably and to establish the lag-time from the stressor to peak excretion. We also validated a field extraction technique and carried out storage experiments to establish a simple, non-freezer-reliant method to preserve FGCMs in extracts long-term. Finally, we conducted field experiments to determine the rate of FGCM change over 28 days when samples in alcohol cannot be extracted immediately and over 12 hours when faeces cannot be preserved immediately in alcohol, and used repeat samples from identified individuals to test for diurnal variation in FGCMs.3). Two group-specific assays measuring major cortisol metabolites reliably detected the predicted FGCM response to the stressor, whereas more specific cortisol and corticosterone assays were distinctly less responsive and thus less useful. Our field extraction method performed as well as a laboratory extraction method and FGCMs 3 3 in dried extracts stored at ambient te...

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Stress in Wildlife Species: Noninvasive Monitoring of Glucocorticoids

Cited by 37 publications

References 15 publications

Major Anthropogenic Causes for and Outcomes of Wild Animal Presentation to a Wildlife Clinic in East Tennessee, USA, 2000–2011

Major Anthropogenic Causes for and Outcomes of Wild Animal Presentation to a Wildlife Clinic in East Tennessee, USA, 2000–2011

Stress, the HPA axis, and nonhuman primate well-being: A review

Non-invasive monitoring of physiological stress in the Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): Validation of a fecal glucocorticoid assay and methods for practical application in the field

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