Do wild-caught urban house sparrows show desensitized stress responses to a novel stressor?

ABSTRACT: While urbanization exposes individuals to novel challenges, urban areas may also constitute stable environments in which seasonal fluctuations are buffered. Baseline and stress-induced plasma corticosterone (cort) levels are often found to be similar in urban and rural populations. Here we aimed to disentangle two possible mechanisms underlying such pattern: (i) urban environments are no more stressful or urban birds have a better ability to habituate to stressors; or (ii) urban birds developed desensitized stress responses. We exposed wild-caught urban and rural house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to combined captivity and diet treatments (urban versus rural diet) and measured corticosterone levels both in natural tail feathers and in regrown homologous ones (cort_f). Urba

SUBMITTER: Salleh Hudin N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6031342 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature