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Validation of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites as non-invasive markers for monitoring stress in common buzzards (Buteo buteo)
For wild animals, being in captivity in wildlife centers can cause considerable stress.
Therefore, it is necessary to establish and validate non-invasive tools to measure chronic stress
during rehabilitation. Eight Common Buzzards which lived in permanent husbandry were placed
individually into prepared aviaries and their feces were collected before, during and after a stress
event for biological validation over a period of seven days. The extracted fecal glucocorticoid
metabolites (fGCMs) were analyzed with three different enzyme immune assays (EIA) to find the
most suitable one. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the stability of fGCM levels after defecation
because further metabolization by bacterial enzymes can lead to changed results. The Cortisone-EIA
performed best in males and females and showed that the stress event led to an fGCM increase of 629%
(557% in females and 702% in males) in relation to basal values. We found no significant differences
between the sexes, but observed significant differences between different times of day. FGCM
concentration significantly changed after eight hours at room temperature. Our study successfully
validated the non-invasive measurement of fGCM as a stress indicator in Common Buzzards and
could therefore lay the foundation for future studies providing new insights for animal welfare
research in Buzzards.
Description:
This article belongs to the Special Issue titled 'Behavioural Endocrinology: Applications for Wildlife Management'.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : All raw data is provided in the Appendix A and Supplementary Materials.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL : TABLE S1: Results of blood examination (n = 6) in female (F1, F2, F3) and male (M1, M2, M3) animals, TABLE S2: Results of X-rays for female (F1, F2, F3) and male (M1, M2, M3) animals (n = 6).