Physiology of Stress in Wild Animals

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All organisms are faced with noxious events (such as predators or storms) from the environment. Animals mount a stress response in order to survive these events, but even after nearly 100 years of studying stress, we still have only a basic idea of how the stress response helps wild animals to survive. This lack of knowledge is of growing importance because man-made noxious events (such as habitat degradation or human disturbance) might cause chronic stress. Although a short-term stress response to a predator or storm is necessary for survival, chronic stress can be very harmful, and if it affects enough individuals, can cause population declines. Wild European starlings will be used to test the hypotheses that: (1) the normal stress response is altered in chronically-stressed birds, (2) there are seasonal differences in how chronic stress alters the stress response, (3) responses to chronic stress in the laboratory accurately model responses in free-living birds. Testing these hypotheses will require an integrated approach of laboratory and field studies on the physiology and behavior of both captive and free-living starlings. The ultimate goal of this project is to create a physiological and endocrinological profile of chronically stressed wild animals. This will allow us to identify chronically stressed individuals in the wild, which will have a far-reaching impact on our basic knowledge of the ecological importance of stress responses.Student help will be vital to completing the above research. Both graduate and undergraduate students will receive important training in how to trap animals, take samples, perform assays, write manuscripts, and other important laboratory and field skills. These studies will also have broad public appeal. Conservation missions should benefit from being able to determine whether animals are chronically stressed.