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17 results for “feather corticosterone”
Data from: Feather corticosterone is lower in translocated and historical populations of the endangered Laysan duck (Anas laysanensis)
<p>Identifying reliable bioindicators of population status is a central goal of conservation physiology. Physiological stress measures are often used as metrics of individual health and can assist in managing endangered species if linked to fitness traits. We analysed feather corticosterone, a cumulative physiological stress metric, of individuals from historical, translocated, and source populations of an endangered endemic Hawaiian bird, the Laysan duck (<em>Anas laysanensis</em>). We hypothesised that feather corticosterone would reflect the improved reproduction and survival rates observed in populations translocated to Midway and Kure Atolls from Laysan Island. We also predicted less physiological stress in historical Laysan birds collected before ecological conditions deteriorated and the population bottleneck. All hypotheses were supported: we found lower feather corticosterone in the translocated populations and historical samples than in those from recent Laysan samples. This suggests that current Laysan birds are experiencing greater physiological stress than historical Laysan and recently translocated birds. Our initial analysis suggests that feather corticosterone may be an indicator of population status and could be used as a non-invasive physiological monitoring tool for this species with further validation. Furthermore, these preliminary results, combined with published demographic data, suggest that current Laysan conditions may not be optimal for this species.</p>
Yelkouan shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan) Maltese Islands' colony differences in feather corticosterone, bulk stable isotopes, mercury concentration, adult breeding success and foraging strategies
<p>All data and scripts uploaded and described here are related to the manuscript being submitted under the title: "<span lang="EN-GB">Feather corticosterone and stable isotopes explain fledging and adult breeding success in a burrow-nesting seabird, the Yelkouan shearwater <em>Puffinus yelkouan</em>", accepted for publication in Marine Biology (doi: 10.1007/s00227-025-04748-8).</span></p> <h2><strong><u>Adult Breeding success </u></strong></h2> <p>In the script “YESH_Malta_BreedingSuccess_DSR_Rmark.R” apparent breeding success and daily nest survival rates are estimated for yelkouan shearwater nests in Maltese colonies based on the nest log data found in “BreedingSuccessSummaryData.zip”.</p> <h2><strong><u>Nestling and fledgling feather growth, corticosterone, stable isotopes and mercury</u></strong></h2> <p>The R script “YESH_FeatherGrowth_CORT_SI_Hg_chicks_Malta_Script.R” was written to load, combine and analyse all the data related to measurements of nestling growth, feather corticosterone, bulk stable isotopes and mercury analysis. The folder “YESH_FeatherGrowth_CORT_SI_Hg_chicks_Malta_Data.zip” contains the files with these data as named and loaded in the script. The folder also contains the original outputs from the corticosterone measurements by plate, including standard curves, provided in the subfolder: “CORT_Output_by_plate”. Original outputs as sent from the LIENs laboratory for stable isotopes and mercury can be found in the subfolder “SI_Hg_Outputs”.</p> <h2><strong><u>Adult shearwater tracking data analysis</u></strong></h2> <p>The R script written to analyse gps-logger data is named: “YESH_RM_MJ_ChickRearPeriod_ForagingStrategies.R”</p> <p>Adult yelkouan shearwater gps-logger tracking data during the chick-rearing period from the two colonies compared, Majjistral (MJ) and Rdum tal-Madonna (RM): “YESH_Malta_RM_MJ_ChickRearPeriod.csv”.</p> <p>Apart from the consolidated form the tracking data from the chick-rearing period can be found on BirdLife International Seabird Tracking Database:</p> <p>2012, 2013 & 2014: <a href="https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/836">https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/836</a></p> <p><a href="https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/837">https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/837</a></p> <p><a href="https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/952">https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/952</a></p> <p>2019: <a href="https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/1935">https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/1935</a></p> <p>2021: https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/2223</p> <p>https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/2224</p> <p>2022: <a href="https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/1855">https://data.seabirdtracking.org/dataset/1855</a> </p> <p>“TRACKID_2012_2022_DIAGNOSTICSV3.csv” describes the completeness of tracks based on visual assessment and is loaded during the running of the script.</p> <p>Output shapefiles produced by running the script are provided in the folder: “YESH_RM_MJ_ShapefileOutputs_KDE.zip”.</p> <h2>Acknowledgements and Funding</h2> <p>We are grateful to the German Ornithologists’ Society through which all laboratory analysis was funded with funds from the Ursula Honig estate. Tracking was funded under EU-LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project (LIFE10NAT/MT/090), EU-LIFE Artina (LIFE17 NAT/HR/000594) and EU-LIFE PanPuffinus! (LIFE19 NAT/MT/000982), co-financed respectively by the Maltese Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change; Ministry of Education and Employment and Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights. All handling and sampling of shearwaters were carried out under permits from the Environment & Resources Authority (ERA) and the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU). We thank all staff and volunteers of BirdLife Malta having taken part in fieldwork, and all members of the public who contact us for grounded shearwaters. We are grateful to Gaël Guillou of the platform “Analyses isotopiques” for running the stable isotope analyses and to Maud Brault-Favrou of the platform “Analyses élémentaires” for running Hg analyses, both at the LIENSs laboratory. Thanks are due to the CPER (Contrat de Projet Etat-Région) and the FEDER (Fonds Européen de Développement Régional) for funding the AMA and the IRMS of LIENSs. Contributor PB is an honorary member of the IUF (Institut Universitaire de France). </p>
Data from: Feather corticosterone is lower in translocated and historical populations of the endangered Laysan duck (Anas laysanensis)
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Feather corticosterone reveals developmental challenges in a long‐term study of juvenile northern spotted owls
<p>1. Corticosterone is a steroid hormone integral to a variety of physiological pathways and is strongly associated with the vertebrate stress–response. In avian species, circulating corticosterone is sequestered into developing feathers and is used as an indicator of energy allocation during feather growth and widely applied in conservation physiology.</p> <p>2. The northern spotted owl (<i>Strix occidentalis caurina</i>) is a federally threatened old–growth forest obligate of conservation concern endemic to the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. The effects of landscape characteristics and individual variation on early development in spotted owls remain unstudied despite long recognition of this knowledge gap and its potential importance to species conservation.</p> <p>3. We quantified corticosterone concentrations in 4,720 feathers from 1,056 juvenile spotted owls across seven study areas between 2001 and 2017. We used an information–theoretic approach to examine the environmental and individual factors related to feather corticosterone in juvenile spotted owls as an indicator of challenges during early development.</p> <p>4. Feather corticosterone was positively related to temperature and precipitation, and negatively related to juvenile mass at banding. We found strong support for an interaction between mass and precipitation, with greater amounts of precipitation being associated with higher levels of feather corticosterone in lighter juveniles. The temperature and precipitation metric with the strongest relationship with feather corticosterone occurred during the fledging period, suggesting that this period presents an energetic challenge for juvenile spotted owls. Greater juvenile mass decreased the effect of precipitation, suggesting that greater mass was important for juveniles to maintain homeostasis during fledgling.</p> <p>5. Feather corticosterone in juvenile spotted owls provided insights to the challenges faced during early development, adding to our understanding of spotted owl life history and potential for population recovery.</p>
Feather corticosterone reveals developmental challenges in a long‐term study of juvenile northern spotted owls
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Data from: Of 11 candidate steroids, corticosterone concentration standardized for mass is the most reliable steroid-biomarker of nutritional stress across different feather types
<p>1. Measuring corticosterone in feathers has become an informative tool in avian ecology, enabling researchers to investigate carry-over effects and responses to environmental variability. Few studies have, however, explored whether corticosterone is the only hormone expressed in feathers, and is the most indicative of environmental stress. Essential questions remain as to how to compare hormone concentrations across different types of feathers and whether preening adds steroids, applied after feather growth. 2. We used liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry to quantify a suite of 11 steroid hormones in back, breast, tail, and primary feathers naturally grown at overlapping time intervals by rhinoceros auklet Cerorhinca monocerata captive-reared fledglings and wild-caught juveniles. The captive-reared birds were raised on either a restricted or control diet. Measured steroids included intermediates in the adrenal steroidogenesis pathway to glucocorticoids and the sex steroids pathway to androgens and estrogens. 3. Corticosterone was detected in the majority of feathers of each type. We also detected cortisone in back feathers, androstenedione in breast feathers, and testosterone in primary feathers. Captive fledglings raised on a restricted diet had higher concentrations of corticosterone in all four feather types than captive fledglings raised on a control diet. Corticosterone concentrations were reliably repeatable across feather types when standardized for feather mass, but not for feather length. Of the seven hormones looked for in uropygial gland secretions, only corticosterone was detected in one out of 23 samples. 4. We conclude that corticosterone is the best feather-steroid biomarker for detection of developmental nutritional stress, as it was the only hormone to manifest a signal of nutritional stress, and that exposure to stress can be compared among different feather types when corticosterone concentrations are standardized by feather mass.</p>
Data from: Feather corticosterone reveals effect of moulting conditions in the autumn on subsequent reproductive output and survival in an Arctic migratory bird
For birds, unpredictable environments during the energetically stressful times of moulting and breeding are expected to have negative fitness effects. Detecting those effects however, might be difficult if individuals modulate their physiology and/or behaviours in ways to minimize short-term fitness costs. Corticosterone in feathers (CORTf) is thought to provide information on total baseline and stress-induced CORT levels at moulting and is an integrated measure of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal activity during the time feathers are grown. We predicted that CORTf levels in northern common eider females would relate to subsequent body condition, reproductive success and survival, in a population of eiders nesting in the eastern Canadian Arctic during a capricious period marked by annual avian cholera outbreaks. We collected CORTf data from feathers grown during previous moult in autumn and data on phenology of subsequent reproduction and survival for 242 eider females over 5 years. Using path analyses, we detected a direct relationship between CORTf and arrival date and body condition the following year. CORTf also had negative indirect relationships with both eider reproductive success and survival of eiders during an avian cholera outbreak. This indirect effect was dramatic with a reduction of approximately 30% in subsequent survival of eiders during an avian cholera outbreak when mean CORTf increased by 1 standard deviation. This study highlights the importance of events or processes occurring during moult on subsequent expression of life-history traits and relation to individual fitness, and shows that information from non-destructive sampling of individuals can track carry-over effects across seasons.
Data from: Assessing costs of carrying geolocators using feather corticosterone in two species of aerial insectivore
Despite benefits of using light-sensitive geolocators to track animal movements and describe patterns of migratory connectivity, concerns have been raised about negative effects of these devices, particularly in small species of aerial insectivore. Geolocators may act as handicaps that increase energetic expenditure, which could explain reported effects of geolocators on survival. We tested this 'Energetic Expenditure Hypothesis' in 12 populations of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) from North America and Europe, using measurements of corticosterone from feathers (CORTf) grown after deployment of geolocators as a measure of physiology relevant to energetics. Contrary to predictions, neither among- (both species) nor within-individual (tree swallows only) levels of CORTf differed with respect to instrumentation. Thus, to the extent that CORTf reflects energetic expenditure, geolocators apparently were not a strong handicap for birds that returned post-deployment. While this physiological evidence suggests that information about migration obtained from returning geolocator-equipped swallows is unbiased with regard to levels of stress, we cannot discount the possibility that corticosterone played a role in reported effects of geolocators on survival in birds, and suggest that future studies relate corticosterone to antecedent factors, such as reproductive history, and to downstream fitness costs.
Data from: Of 11 candidate steroids, corticosterone concentration standardized for mass is the most reliable steroid-biomarker of nutritional stress across different feather types
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Data from: Feather corticosterone reveals stress associated with dietary changes in a breeding seabird
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Data from: Does urbanization cause stress in wild birds during development? insights from feather corticosterone levels in juvenile house sparrows (Passer domesticus)
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Data from: Feather corticosterone reveals effect of moulting conditions in the autumn on subsequent reproductive output and survival in an Arctic migratory bird
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Data from: Assessing costs of carrying geolocators using feather corticosterone in two species of aerial insectivore
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Data from: Corticosterone: effects on feather quality and deposition into feathers
1. The concentration of the glucocorticoid hormone corticosterone (CORT) is increasingly used in ecology and conservation biology as an integrated measure of the historical record of an individual's hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity during feather growth. However, where and how CORT is incorporated in feathers is incompletely known. 2. We therefore examined whether CORT is reliably measured with an enzyme immunoassay, where CORT is incorporated in the feather and where it affects feather quality, and whether CORT incorporation is related to plasma CORT levels, feather growth rate and melanin pigmentation. 3. During regrowth of plucked tail feathers, we injected pigeons with tritium-labelled CORT, and implanted a CORT-releasing pellet to increase plasma CORT concentration for about three days. In feather segments we measured labelled CORT (DPM3H) and we quantified CORT with an enzyme immunoassay EIA (CORTEIA) and double-checked the results with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS) (CORTMS). 4. Administered CORT affected feather structure and colour at the very base of the feather (epidermal collar, ramogenic zone) and reduced growth rate. In contrast, incorporation of CORT into the feather happened mainly in the blood quill, as shown with all three methods (DPM3H, CORTEIA, and CORTMS). 5. Incorporation of CORT into feathers was only roughly proportional to plasma concentration, proportional to feather-growth rate and increased with melanin pigmentation. 6. Measuring CORT in feather is a way to reveal past events of increased stress during feather growth in birds.
Data from: Corticosterone: effects on feather quality and deposition into feathers
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Data from: Ambient temperature, body condition and sibling rivalry explain feather corticosterone levels in developing black kites
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Data from: Biomarker of burden: feather corticosterone reflects energetic expenditure and allostatic overload in captive waterfowl
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