Diet and traffic: anthropogenic factors that influence stress-related hormone levels in African clawless otters.

ABSTRACT: Environmental and anthropogenic factors significantly drive adrenocortical activity of animals, affecting their behaviour, distribution and survival. Understanding how animals respond to such drivers is essential for effective conservation. Spraint samples from free-ranging African clawless otters (Aonyx capensis) and camera trap data were collected from study sites categorized as natural or artificially transformed based on differences in anthropogenic disturbance levels. To determine if there were significant differences in faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations between the Natural (Kalkfontein Nature Reserve) and Transformed (Millstream Farm) sites, we ran a linear model that included sex, season, habitat type and their interaction. fGCM concentrations differed si

SUBMITTER: Burger M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12703489 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature