Physiology and Behavior of Stress in Wild Animals

科学目标所有生物都面临着来自环境的挑战（如捕食者或风暴）。动物为了在这些挑战中生存而产生应激反应，但即使经过近100年的研究，人们对应激反应如何帮助野生动物生存也只有基本的了解。 这种知识的缺乏越来越重要，因为人为的有害事件（如栖息地退化或人类干扰）可能导致慢性压力。 虽然对捕食者或风暴的短期压力反应是生存所必需的，但慢性压力可能非常有害，如果它影响到足够多的个体，可能导致种群下降。 该项目将使用野生欧洲椋鸟作为模型来测试两个假设：（1）正常环境事件的频率增加会导致野生动物的慢性应激;（2）将对母亲暴露于慢性应激的后代产生长期影响。 检验这些假设将需要一个综合的方法，实验室和现场研究的生理和行为的圈养和自由生活的椋鸟。 最终的目标是建立一个生理和内分泌的档案，长期强调野生动物。 这将为识别长期处于压力下的野生个体和确定对这些个体及其后代的长期影响提供标准。更广泛的影响学生的参与对实现研究目标至关重要。 研究生，本科生和博士后研究员将接受有关如何诱捕动物，采集样本，进行分析，撰写手稿以及其他重要实验室和现场技能的重要培训。保护任务可以受益于更多的信息，以确定动物是否在野外长期紧张。

Scientific Goals All organisms are faced with challenges (such as predators or storms) from the environment. Animals mount a stress response in order to survive these challenges, but even after nearly 100 years of studying stress, there is only a basic understanding of how the stress response helps wild animals to survive. This lack of knowledge is of growing significance because man-made noxious events (such as habitat degradation or human disturbance) could 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. This project will use wild European starlings as a model to test two hypotheses: (1) That increased frequency of normal environmental events can result in chronic stress in wild animals; and (2) There will be long-term impacts on offspring whose mothers were exposed to chronic stress. 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 is to create a physiological and endocrinological profile of chronically stressed wild animals. This will provide criteria for identifying chronically stressed individuals in the wild and determining the long-term impact on those individuals and their offspring.Broader Impacts Student participation will be vital to accomplishment of the research goals. Graduate students, undergraduate students, and a postdoctoral fellow will receive important training in how to trap animals, take samples, perform assays, write manuscripts, and other important laboratory and field skills. Conservation missions could benefit from additional information to determine whether animals are chronically stressed in the wild.