title: Natural Variation in Stress Hormones, Comparisons Across Matrices, and Impacts Resulting from Induced Stress in the Bottlenose Dolphin.
abstract: Knowledge regarding stress hormones and how they vary in response to seasonality, gender, age, and reproductive status for any marine mammal is limited. Furthermore, stress hormones may be measured in more than one matrix (e.g., feces, blood, blubber), but the relationships between levels of a given hormone across these matrices are unknown, further complicating the interpretations of hormones measured in samples collected from wild animals. A study is underway to address these issues in a population of bottlenose dolphins trained for voluntary participation in sample collections from different matrices and across season and time of day.
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation and Biological Research, National Marine Mammal Foundation, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, CA, 92106, USA. dorian.houser@nmmf.org.
authors.forename: Dorian S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Houser
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation and Biological Research, National Marine Mammal Foundation, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, CA, 92106, USA. cory.champagne@nmmf.org.
authors.forename: Cory D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Champagne
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, 94928, USA. crocker@sonoma.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Crocker
authors.affiliation: Marine Mammal and Turtle Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, San Diego, CA, 92037, USA. nick.kellar@noaa.gov.
authors.forename: Nicholas M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Kellar
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Massey University, Palmerston North, 4442, New Zealand. j.f.cockrem@massey.ac.nz.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cockrem
authors.affiliation: Research and Zoological Operations, Mystic Aquarium, Mystic, CT, 06355, USA. tromano@searesearch.org.
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA. rkn5@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Rebecca K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Booth
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA. wassers@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Samuel K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Wasser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D050681:Bottle-Nosed Dolphin / Q000097:blood*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006728:Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones
keywords: Aldosterone; Catecholamines; Cortisol; Thyroid hormones