Bhattacharjee, SubhadeepKumar, VinodChandrasekhar, MithileshwariMalviya, ManjariGanswindt, AndreRamesh, KrishnamurthySankar, KalyanasundaramUmapathy, GovindhaswamySenthilkumaran, Balasubramanian2015-09-282015-09-282015-06-10Bhattacharjee S, Kumar V, Chandrasekhar M, Malviya M, Ganswindt A, Ramesh K, Sankar K & Umapathy G. (2015) Glucocorticoid Stress Responses of Reintroduced Tigers in Relation to Anthropogenic Disturbance in Sariska Tiger Reserve in India. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0127626. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127626.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0127626http://hdl.handle.net/2263/50048S1 Fig. Parallelism between pooled serial dilution of tiger’s fecal extract (square) and respective cortisol standard (circle).S2 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST2 tigress movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S3 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST3 tigress movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S4 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST4 tiger movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S5 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST5 tigress movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S6 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST6 tiger movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).Tiger (Panthera tigris), an endangered species, is under severe threat from poaching, habitat loss, prey depletion and habitat disturbance. Such factors have been reported causing local extermination of tiger populations including in one of the most important reserves in India, namely Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in northwestern India. Consequently, tigers were reintroduced in STR between 2008 and 2010, but inadequate breeding success was observed over the years, thus invoking an investigation to ascertain physiological correlates. In the present study, we report glucocorticoid stress responses of the reintroduced tigers in relation to anthropogenic disturbance in the STR from 2011 to 2013. We found anthropogenic disturbance such as encounter rates of livestock and humans, distance to roads and efforts to kill domestic livestock associated with an elevation in fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations in the monitored tigers. In this regard, female tigers seem more sensitive to such disturbance than males. It was possible to discern that tiger’s fGCM levels were significantly positively related to the time spent in disturbed areas. Resulting management recommendations include relocation of villages from core areas and restriction of all anthropogenic activities in the entire STR.en© 2015 Bhattacharjee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.PoachingTiger populationsSariska Tiger Reserve, IndiaTiger (Panthera tigris)Habitat lossHabitat disturbancePrey depletionEndangered speciesArticle