Between hunter and climate: the effects of hunting and environmental change on fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in two sympatric ungulate species in the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem, Tanzania.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the drivers of animal population decline is a key focus of conservation biologists. Anthropogenic activities such as hunting have long been established as potentially detrimental to a population's persistence. However, environmental perturbations such as increased temperature variability, exacerbated by climate change, can also have important effects on animal populations. Animals can respond to these challenges by adjusting both their behavior and physiology. We measured fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs) of common impala (Aepyceros melampus) and greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), both currently in stable populations, to examine effects of hunting, forage availability, daily variability in temperature and group size on their physiological stress resp

SUBMITTER: Hariohay KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10660377 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature