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Levels of plasma and fecal glucocorticoid metabolites following an ACTH challenge in male and female coyotes (Canis latrans)

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Abstract

Knowledge of endocrine stress responses can be advantageous for understanding how animals respond to their environment. One tool in wildlife endocrinology is to measure the adrenocortical activity as a parameter of disturbance of animals. Fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (GCMs) provide a noninvasive assessment of adrenocortical activity. Using an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge administered to 28 captive coyotes (Canis latrans), we measured the levels of plasma cortisol, and fecal cortisol and corticosterone metabolites (i.e., GCMs). Our goal was to determine the dose-response in the plasma and fecal samples following the injection and determine if there were effects of sex, age, and time of day. Specifically, animals were anesthetized for ~ 90 min with treatment animals intravenously injected with exogenous ACTH and control animals receiving saline. We collected blood samples prior to injection and at 4 different time points post-injection. We also collected fecal samples 2 days pre- and 2 days post-injection to measure fecal GCMs and determine if an endocrine stress response could be detected in fecal samples. We found a definite response in cortisol levels in the plasma for coyotes to the ACTH challenge. There was a response in fecal corticosterone 1 day post-injection, but the control males showed a similar response indicating a handling effect. Fecal cortisol levels did not indicate a response to the ACTH challenge, and were significantly lower than corticosterone concentrations. We also found significant sex, but not age or diurnal, differences in fecal GCMs. Radioimmunoassays for fecal corticosterone levels appeared to be a reliable indicator of physiological stress in coyotes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the USDA/APHIS/WS/National Wildlife Research Center, Predator Research facility for funding and use of the captive coyote colony. We also thank the staff at the Predator Research facility, especially S. Brummer, J. Schultz, and N. Floyd for helping with the care of the coyotes. We also thank B. Roberts for teaching us the extraction method, M. Stevenson for the help extracting the hormones from fecal samples, and J. Young for reviewing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Department of Wildland Resources, APHIS, Utah State University, BNR 163, Logan, UT, 84322-5295, USA

    Erika T. Stevenson & Eric M. Gese

  2. Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Susannah S. French

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, 72401, USA

    Lorin A. Neuman-Lee

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  1. Erika T. Stevenson
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  2. Eric M. Gese
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  3. Lorin A. Neuman-Lee
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  4. Susannah S. French
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Correspondence to Erika T. Stevenson.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. Animal care, anesthesia, and handling procedures were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC-QA 1809) at the USDA-National Wildlife Research Center and Utah State University.

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Communicated by G. Heldmaier.

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Stevenson, E.T., Gese, E.M., Neuman-Lee, L.A. et al. Levels of plasma and fecal glucocorticoid metabolites following an ACTH challenge in male and female coyotes (Canis latrans). J Comp Physiol B 188, 345–358 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-017-1125-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-017-1125-2

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