captive housing during water vole (arvicola terrestris) reintroduction does short-term social stress impact on animal welfare俘虏期间住房水田鼠(arvicola terrestris)重新做短期社会压力对动物福利的影响.pdfVIP

Captive Housing during Water Vole (Arvicola terrestris) Reintroduction: Does Short-Term Social Stress Impact on Animal Welfare? . ˜ . . Merryl Gelling* , Inigo Montes , Tom P. Moorhouse , David W. Macdonald Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom Abstract Background: Animals captive bred for reintroduction are often housed under conditions which are not representative of their preferred social structure for at least part of the reintroduction process. Specifically, this is most likely to occur during the final stages of the release programme, whilst being housed during transportation to the release site. The degree of social stress experienced by individuals during this time may negatively impact upon their immunocompetence. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined two measure of stress - body weight and Leukocyte Coping Capacity (LCC) - to investigate the effects of group size upon captive-bred water voles destined for release within a reintroduction program. Water voles were housed in laboratory cages containing between one and eight individuals. LCC scores were negatively correlated with group size, suggesting that individuals in larger groups experienced a larger degree of immuno- suppression than did individuals housed in smaller groups or individually. During the course of the study mean body weights increased, in contrast to expectations from a previous study. This was attributed to the individuals sampled being sub-adults and thus growing in length and weight during the course of the investigation. Conclusions/Significance: The reintroduction process will inevitably cause some stress to the release cohort. However, for water voles we conclude th