Barukčić Valentina, Berlinguer Fiammetta, Pasciu Valeria, Sotgiu Francesca Daniela, Šprem Nikica
Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Fisheries, Apiculture, Wildlife Management and Special Zoology, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska cesta 25, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia.
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, Via Vienna 2, Sassari, 07100, Italy.
BMC Vet Res. 2025 Apr 3;21(1):241. doi: 10.1186/s12917-025-04678-z.
Stressful situations that trigger an acute stress response help animals to survive in the wild. In contrast, a prolonged stressful situation can have a negative effect on the animal's health. The organism activates the HPA axis, which stimulates the adrenal cortex through an intricate network of responses. In response to the stimulation, the adrenal cortex releases glucocorticoids. Hormones and their metabolites are a good indicator of stress levels in wild animals and can be measured in many matrices such as blood, feces, urine, saliva and hair. Many studies have investigated the effects of various stressors such as anthropogenic influences, environmental and biological factors and predation on glucocorticoid levels in these non-invasive matrices. We provide an overview of the literature on this topic in wild Cervidae and Bovidae, focusing only on Europe and North America.
We reviewed the scientific literature published between 1979 and 2024 and found 77 papers studying the correlations between different stressors and glucocorticoid levels in wild ungulates. Most researchers used feces as the matrix of choice for analyzing glucocorticoid levels as well as enzymatic immunoassay (EIA) as the analytical method. In 41 of the 77 studies, the researchers validated the analytical method themselves (19 studies) or used the analytical method that had been previously validated by others on the studied species (22 studies).
The increasing number of studies looking at stressful events in wild ungulates shows that researchers are interested in wildlife welfare and are making more effort to understand the biology of stress in wildlife.
引发急性应激反应的应激情况有助于动物在野外生存。相比之下，长期的应激情况会对动物健康产生负面影响。机体激活下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴，该轴通过复杂的反应网络刺激肾上腺皮质。作为对这种刺激的反应，肾上腺皮质释放糖皮质激素。激素及其代谢产物是野生动物应激水平的良好指标，可在血液、粪便、尿液、唾液和毛发等多种基质中进行测量。许多研究调查了各种应激源，如人为影响、环境和生物因素以及捕食对这些非侵入性基质中糖皮质激素水平的影响。我们概述了关于欧洲和北美的野生鹿科和牛科动物这一主题的文献。
我们回顾了1979年至2024年间发表的科学文献，发现有77篇论文研究了野生有蹄类动物不同应激源与糖皮质激素水平之间的相关性。大多数研究人员选择粪便作为分析糖皮质激素水平的基质，并使用酶免疫测定（EIA）作为分析方法。在77项研究中的41项中，研究人员自己验证了分析方法（19项研究），或者使用了其他人先前在研究物种上验证过的分析方法（22项研究）。
越来越多关于野生有蹄类动物应激事件的研究表明，研究人员对野生动物福利感兴趣，并正在付出更多努力来了解野生动物的应激生物学。
