Motorized backcountry recreation and stress response in Mountain Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) ...

• Main Author: Freeman, Nicola L.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2008
• Subjects: Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0066622; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0066622

Mountain caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are endangered in British Columbia and motorized backcountry recreation has been identified as a potential threat to their persistence. My objective was to test if fecal glucocorticoids (GCs), indicative of physiological effects of ecological stress in wildlife, could be used as a non-invasive tool to quantify stress response in free-ranging caribou exposed to motorized recreation. I validated an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to measure concentration of fecal GCs for R. tarandus using an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge experiment on captive reindeer exposed to extreme variation in winter weather. Female reindeer expressed elevated fecal GCs 9-11 hrs after ACTH injection. Males showed no detectable increase, perhaps due to underdosing. Fecal GCs varied markedly in both sexes in response to natural variation in weather. Overall, my results indicated fecal assays can be used to track biologically meaningful changes in adrenal activity in ...