Differences in adrenocortical responses between urban and rural burrowing owls: poorly-known underlying mechanisms and their implications for conservation.

ABSTRACT: The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal/interrenal (HPA) axis of vertebrates integrates external information and orchestrates responses to cope with energy-demanding and stressful events through changes in circulating glucocorticoid levels. Urbanization exposes animals to a wide variety of ever-changing stimuli caused by human activities that may affect local wildlife populations. Here, we empirically tested the hypothesis that urban and rural owls (Athene cunicularia) show different adrenocortical responses to stress, with urban individuals showing a reduced HPA-axis response compared to rural counterparts to cope with the high levels of human disturbance typical of urban areas. We applied a standard capture-restraint protocol to measure baseline levels and stress-induced corticosterone

SUBMITTER: Palma A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7336563 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature