圈养黄颊长臂猿粪便皮质醇代谢分析.

Fecal cortisol, which can measure the stress level of animals, is a good indicator to analyze stress responses and to assess captive animals’ welfare. In order to investigate the stress response of yellow-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) at Chengdu Zoo, we measured fecal cortisol of two gibbons from April 2016 to April 2017, and emphasized on the relationship between cortisol and tourist disturbance, season and estrus. The results showed that there was no significant difference in cortisol levels between holidays and non-holidays in both the female and male gibbon (p=0. 061, 0. 057, and female cortisol was significantly higher than male cortisol during holidays (p<0. 001). In addition, fecal cortisol level in both genders were the highest in winter compared to spring (p<0. 01), summer (p<0. 05） and autumn (p<0. 01). There was a significant positive correlation between cortisol and estrogen for the female (r =0. 790, p=0. 011), but no such correlation for the male (r =0. 027, p=0. 944). Our findings suggested that stress response of the two yellow-cheeked gibbons to tourist disturbance was small, but the female showed higher sensitivity to the disturbance than the male. Moreover, for captive yellow-cheeked gibbons, cortisol level is seasonally regulated, and its significant increase in winter may be related to energy metabolism and immunity. Additionally, cortisol may also be associated with reproductive and physiological needs during breeding season, and therefore a gender difference may exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]