Eye Region Surface Temperature and Corticosterone Response to Acute Stress in a High-Arctic Seabird, the Little Auk

• Published in: Animals
• Main Authors: Jakubas, Dariusz, Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna, Grissot, Antoine, Devogel, Marion, Cendrowska, Martyna, Chastel, Olivier
• Other Authors: Department of Vertebrate Ecology & Zoology, Avian Ecophysiology Unit, University of Gdańsk (UG), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: acute stress; body surface temperature; hormonal stress response; thermal stress response; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Arctic; Alle alle; little auk
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03591209; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12040499

International audience Measuring changes in surface body temperature (specifically in eye-region) in vertebrates using infrared thermography is increasingly applied for detection of the stress reaction. Here we investigated the relationship between the eye-region temperature (TEYE; measured with infrared thermography), the corticosterone level in blood (CORT; stress indicator in birds), and some covariates (ambient temperature, humidity, and sex/body size) in a High-Arctic seabird, the Little Auk Alle alle. The birds responded to the capture-restrain protocol (blood sampling at the moment of capturing, and after 30 min of restrain) by a significant TEYE and CORT increase. However, the strength of the TEYE and CORT response to acute stress were not correlated. It confirms the results of a recent study on other species and all together indicates that infrared thermography is a useful, non-invasive measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity under acute activation, but it might not be a suitable proxy for natural variation of circulating glucocorticoid levels.