Assessing the utility of urinary and fecal cortisol as an indicator of stress in golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana).

ABSTRACT: Cortisol concentration (CC) is often used as a stress indicator in animals, as high CC is associated with elevated stress levels. During field research, non-invasive methods of measuring CC, such as collection of urine and feces, are superior to using blood samples when monitoring free-ranging animals' stress levels. However, due to different metabolic pathways, whether CC can be detected in urine and feces to reliably assess stress varies across species. Therefore, it is important to ascertain whether urine and fecal samples are a reliable source for determining CCs and to determine a suitable sampling regime. In this study, we subjected three captive adult golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) to a high-stress situation (capture and injection). Urine and feces were c

SUBMITTER: Chen H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5572531 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature