Welfare monitoring 2.0: steroid profiling in wildlife hair

SmallLeast concernGermanyAnimal welfare sciencePhysiologyNot publishedPortugalMammals2023
Written By Wild Animal Initiative

Grantee: Lynn Vanhaecke

 

Institutions: Ghent University, Germany, and Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, Portugal

Project start date: October 2024

Grant amount: $49,325

 

Grant type: Small grants

Focal species: Mammals

 

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Animal welfare science, physiology

 

Research locations: Germany and Portugal

Project summary

Hair hormone measurement is becoming a widely-used tool to measure welfare in wild mammals because it can differentiate acute adaptive stress responses from chronic maladaptive ones (distress). This project aims to address knowledge gaps that remain about steroid incorporation into hair. Researchers will identify which steroid hormones increase in concentration in response to chronic stress, and explore how to address the potential for overestimated glucocorticoid levels.

Why we funded this project

Wildlife management decisions affecting animal welfare increasingly rely on hormone measurements. Robustness and validation are therefore urgent priorities, both for the credibility of welfare assessments and for the animals affected.

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