Aggressive behavior and hair cortisol levels in captive Dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas) as animal-based welfare indicators.
Ensuring welfare in captive wild animal populations is important not only for ethical and legal reasons, but also to maintain healthy individuals and populations. An increased level of social behaviors such as aggression can reduce welfare by causing physical damage and chronic stress to animals. Recently, cortisol in hair has been advanced as a non-invasive indicator to quantify long-lasting stress in many species. The sensitivity of social behavior and hair cortisol concentration was evaluated in several groups of dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas). Four different groups of gazelles from three different zoos were observed and the expression of intra-specific affiliative and negative social behaviors was assessed across the different groups. Hair samples were taken from sub-groups of animals and analyzed for cortisol concentrations. Significant differences between groups of dorcas gazelles were found in frequency of negative social behavior and hair cortisol concentration. Despite the low sample size, these two parameters had a positive Spearman correlation coefficient (rs= +0.80, P = 0.20). These results suggest that hair cortisol levels are sensitive to differences in the social structure of dorcas gazelles. Zoo Biol. 35:467-473, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Marina
M
Salas
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Déborah
D
Temple
Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Crta.Sacramento, La Cañada de San Urbano (Almería), Spain.
Teresa
T
Abáigar
Zoobotánico Jerez, c/Madreselva, Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Spain.
Mariano
M
Cuadrado
Zoo Aquarium de Madrid, Casa de Campo, Madrid, Spain.
Maria
M
Delclaux
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.|Parc Zoològic de Barcelona, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona, Spain.
Conrad
C
Enseñat
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.|Parc Zoològic de Barcelona, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona, Spain.
Vanessa
V
Almagro
Zoo Aquarium de Madrid, Casa de Campo, Madrid, Spain.
Eva
E
Martínez-Nevado
Zoobotánico Jerez, c/Madreselva, Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Spain.
Miguel Ángel
MÁ
Quevedo
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Annaïs
A
Carbajal
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Oriol
O
Tallo-Parra
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Maria
M
Sabés-Alsina
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Marta
M
Amat
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Manel
M
Lopez-Bejar
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.|Parc Zoològic de Barcelona, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona, Spain.
Hugo
H
Fernández-Bellon
Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
Xavier
X
Manteca
D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods*; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo; D000866:Antelopes / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*
D006854:Hydrocortisone
animal welfare; captivity; glucocorticoid; social behavior; zoo