Faecal Glucocorticoid Metabolites and H/L Ratio are Related Markers of Stress in Semi-Captive Asian Timber Elephants.

ABSTRACT: Animals are kept in captivity for various reasons, but species with a slower pace of life may adapt to captive environments less easily, leading to welfare concerns and the need to assess stress reliably in order to develop effective interventions. Our aim was to assess welfare of semi-captive timber elephants from Myanmar by investigating the relationship between two physiological markers of stress commonly used as proxies for welfare, faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations (FGM) and heterophil/lymphocyte ratios (H/L), and link these measures to changes in body condition (determined by body weight). We further assessed how robustly these two markers of stress performed in animals of different age or sex, or in different ecological contexts. We measured FGM concentrations and H/L

SUBMITTER: Seltmann MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7023510 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature