Department of Reproduction Biology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Porto, Portugal.
PLoS One. 2019 Aug 9;14(8):e0221124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221124. eCollection 2019.
The measurement of hair cortisol is increasingly used to understand the effect of natural and anthropogenic stressors on wild animals, but it is potentially confounded by individual, seasonal and sex-dependant variations in baseline cortisol secretion. This study validated an enzyme-linked immunoassay for hair cortisol measurement and characterized its baseline variation in a wild population of Egyptian mongoose. The analysis encompassed individuals of both sexes and all ages, across a range of geographic, environmental and seasonal conditions that the species experiences in Portugal allowing us to account for spatial, temporal and biological factors that contribute to hair cortisol variation. Our results showed that age, sex and storage time had an effect on hair cortisol, but season did not. Hair cortisol was higher in early stage juveniles compared to other age cohorts, in males when compared to females, and decreased with longer storage time. By identifying the factors that influence baseline hair cortisol in this wild population, we establish the basis for its application as an indicator of the effect of natural and anthropogenic stressors.
毛发皮质醇的测量越来越多地被用于了解自然和人为应激源对野生动物的影响，但它可能受到个体、季节性和性别相关的基础皮质醇分泌变化的影响。本研究验证了毛发皮质醇测量的酶联免疫吸附测定法，并描述了其在野生埃及猫鼬种群中的基础变化。该分析涵盖了不同性别和年龄段的个体，涵盖了该物种在葡萄牙经历的一系列地理、环境和季节性条件，使我们能够考虑到导致毛发皮质醇变化的空间、时间和生物学因素。我们的结果表明，年龄、性别和储存时间对毛发皮质醇有影响，但季节没有影响。与其他年龄组相比，早期幼崽的毛发皮质醇更高，与雌性相比，雄性的毛发皮质醇更高，且随着储存时间的延长而减少。通过确定影响野生种群基础毛发皮质醇的因素，我们为其作为自然和人为应激源影响的指标奠定了基础。
