Measuring stress in wildlife: techniques for quantifying glucocorticoids
Open accessAbstract
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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Samples were frozen immediately after collection at −20 °C.
“Samples were gathered in cryovials and frozen immediately after collection at À20 °C (Millspaugh and Washburn, 2004;Palme et al., 2005;Sheriff et al., 2011).”
From Effect of weather conditions and presence of visitors on adrenocortical activity in captive African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) (2017) · cites this paper as Sheriff et al., 2011
The 'Sample collection and storage' section recommends freezing fecal samples immediately after collection. It does not specify −20 °C for those samples or mention cryovials; its recommendation to store at or below −20 °C applies to processed blood samples, not immediate freezing after collection. The paper also does not report that the citing authors' samples were handled this way. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe penguins' diet was not modified throughout the study period to avoid alterations in gut flora and, as a consequence, steroid metabolism.
“Throughout the study period, the penguins' diet was not modified in order to avoid alterations in gut flora and, as a consequence, steroid metabolism (Sheriff et al., 2011).”
From Effect of weather conditions and presence of visitors on adrenocortical activity in captive African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) (2017) · cites this paper as Sheriff et al., 2011
The physiological stress response in vertebrates results in increased secretion of glucocorticoid hormones subsequent to activation of the HPA axis.
“The physiological stress response in vertebrates results in an increased secretion of glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) subsequent to the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis (Möstl and Palme, 2002;Touma and Palme, 2005;Sheriff et al., 2011).”
From Effect of weather conditions and presence of visitors on adrenocortical activity in captive African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) (2017) · cites this paper as Sheriff et al., 2011
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- Authors
- Sheriff, M. J., Dantzer, B., Delehanty, B., Palme, R., & Boonstra, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
- University of Toronto Scarborough (CA)
- University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Sheriff, Michael J.
- Dantzer, Ben
- Delehanty, Brendan
- Palme, Rupert
- Boonstra, Rudy
- Venue
- Oecologia
- Published
- 2011-02-23
- Volume
- 166
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 869-887
- ISSN
- 0029-8549 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1939
- OpenAlex
- W2024078022
- Cited by
- 919
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 51 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 115 · 2020: 97 · 2019: 72 · 2018: 69 · 2017: 65 · 2016: 52 · 2015: 51 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 51.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Oecologia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- TSpace (University of Toronto) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- glucocorticoids, stress physiology, wildlife, non-invasive sampling, fecal glucocorticoid metabolites, blood sampling, chronic stress, acute stressors, animal welfare, conservation management
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animals, Wild, Feathers, Feces, Glucocorticoids, Hair, Neurosecretory Systems, Saliva, Stress, Physiological, Stress, Psychological, Validation Studies as Topic
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