HAIR CORTISOL AND VOLUNTARY ETHANOL CONSUMPTION IN WILD LIVING TREE SHREWS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Previous work from our lab (Davenport et al, 2006) has demonstrated the usefulness of using the matrix of hair as a means to establish an endocrine (particularly cortisol) phenotype for rhesus macaques. This work continued (Davenport et al, 2007) with studies demonstrating the usefulness of hair for measuring stress over long periods of time in response to relocation of the animals. In a new application of this approach, we have begun a collaboration with Dr. Frank Wiens of Bayreuth University in Germany to investigate the relationship between stress and natural ethanol consumption in wild common tree shrews (Tupaia glis). Although we do not yet have results concerning differences in hair cortisol as a function of ethanol consumption, there are preliminary data from a small number of female shrews indicating that tagging and tracking the animals may itself be a stressful procedure. Dr. Wiens plans to collect more samples for us to determine whether these initial findings hold up; if so, this will be an important contribution to field researchers concerned with the effects of their procedures on their study animals.