Non-invasive stress and nutritional hormone analysis in relation to ecological and other biological indices have tremendous potential to address environmental disturbance impacts on wildlife health. To this end, we examined the relation between glucocorticoid (GC) and thyroid (T3) hormone indices of disturbance and nutritional stress in response to ACTH and TSH challenges in captive tigers, as well as how reproductive hormones vary by sex and reproductive condition. Glucocorticoid, thyroid, progesterone and androgen assays conducted on high-performance liquid chromatography separated fractions of biologically relevant fecal extracts revealed high cross-reactivity of these assays for their respective biologically relevant fecal hormone metabolites. Both adrenal and thyroid hormone metabolites were elevated in response to ACTH and TSH challenges. However, the adrenal and thyroid hormone responses to ACTH challenge were concurrent, whereas the adrenal response to TSH challenge was delayed relative to thyroid hormone elevation in both males and females. The concurrently elevated T3 in response to ACTH may serve to raise metabolic rate to maximize use of GC-mobilized glucose, whereas the relatively delayed GC rise following TSH challenge may be a response to glucose depletion due to increased metabolic rate associated with elevated T3. Progesterone, testosterone and androstenedione hormone metabolites were significantly elevated during gestation compared to lactation in a female monitored from conception through early lactation. Results suggest that the glucocorticoid, thyroid and reproductive hormone assays we tested can accurately measure the stress, nutrition and reproductive response from tiger feces, providing useful non-invasive tools to assess physiological responses to environmental stressors and their reproductive consequences in the wild.

中文翻译：

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粪便压力，营养和生殖激素，用于监测环境对老虎的影响（Panthera tigris）。

与生态和其他生物指标相关的非侵入性压力和营养激素分析在解决环境干扰对野生动植物健康的影响方面具有巨大潜力。为此，我们研究了圈养老虎响应ACTH和TSH攻击时，糖皮质激素（GC）和甲状腺（T3）激素指数的紊乱和营养应激之间的关系，以及生殖激素如何随性别和生殖条件而变化。在高效液相色谱法上进行的糖皮质激素，甲状腺，孕酮和雄激素测定分离的生物相关粪便提取物馏分揭示了这些测定法对各自生物学相关的粪便激素代谢产物的高交叉反应性。肾上腺和甲状腺激素代谢产物均响应ACTH和TSH挑战而升高。然而，在男性和女性中，肾上腺和甲状腺激素对ACTH激发的反应是同时发生的，而相对于甲状腺激素升高，对TSH激发的肾上腺反应却被延迟了。同时响应于ACTH的T3升高可能有助于提高代谢率，以最大程度地利用GC动员的葡萄糖，而TSH激发后相对延迟的GC升高可能是由于与T3升高相关的代谢率升高而对葡萄糖消耗的反应。与从哺乳到受孕到早期哺乳的女性相比，孕期的孕酮，睾丸激素和雄烯二酮激素代谢物显着升高。结果表明，我们测试的糖皮质激素，甲状腺和生殖激素检测方法可以准确地测量压力，