does environmental enrichment reduce stress an integrated measure of corticosterone from feathers provides a novel perspective做环境浓缩减轻压力综合测量皮质甾酮从羽毛提供了一个新颖的角度.pdfVIP

Does Environmental Enrichment Reduce Stress? An Integrated Measure of Corticosterone from Feathers Provides a Novel Perspective 1 1 2 2 2¤ Graham D. Fairhurst *, Matthew D. Frey , James F. Reichert , Izabela Szelest , Debbie M. Kelly , Gary R. Bortolotti1 1 Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2 Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Abstract Enrichment is widely used as tool for managing fearfulness, undesirable behaviors, and stress in captive animals, and for studying exploration and personality. Inconsistencies in previous studies of physiological and behavioral responses to enrichment led us to hypothesize that enrichment and its removal are stressful environmental changes to which the hormone corticosterone and fearfulness, activity, and exploration behaviors ought to be sensitive. We conducted two experiments with a captive population of wild-caught Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) to assess responses to short- (10-d) and long-term (3-mo) enrichment, their removal, and the influence of novelty, within the same animal. Variation in an integrated measure of corticosterone from feathers, combined with video recordings of behaviors, suggests that how individuals perceive enrichment and its removal depends on the duration of exposure. Short- and long-term enrichment elicited different physiological responses, with the former acting as a stressor and birds exhibiting acclimation to the latter. Non-novel enrichment evoked the strongest corticosterone responses of all the treatments, suggesting that the sec