FECAL GLUCOCORTICOIDS AND THEIR METABOLITES AS INDICATORS OF STRESS IN VARIOUS MAMMALIAN SPECIES: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract Conservation medicine is a discipline in which researchers and conservationists study and respond to the dynamic interplay between animals, humans, and the environment. From a wildlife perspective, animal species are encountering stressors from numerous sources. With the rapidly increasing human population, a corresponding increased demand for food, fuel, and shelter; habitat destruction; and increased competition for natural resources, the health and well-being of wild animal populations is increasingly at risk of disease and endangerment. Scientific data are needed to measure the impact that human encroachment is having on wildlife. Nonbiased biometric data provide a means to measure the amount of stress being imposed on animals from humans, the environment, and other animals. The stress response in animals functions via glucocorticoid metabolism and is regulated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Fecal glucocorticoids, in particular, may be an extremely useful biometric test, since sa...