Tempests, Poxes, Predators, and People: Stress in Wild Animals and How They Cope (Oxford Series in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology)

Although scientists have discovered many fundamental physiological and behavioral mechanisms that comprise the stress response, most of current knowledge is based on laboratory experiments using domesticated or captive animals. Scientists are only beginning, however, to understand how stress impacts wild animals - by studying the nature of the stressful stimuli that animals in their natural environments have adapted to for survival, and what the mechanisms that allow that survival might be. This book summarizes, for the first time, several decades of work on understanding stress in natural contexts. The aim is two-fold. The first goal of this work is to place modern stress research into an evolutionary context. The stress response clearly did not evolve to cause disease, so that studying how animals use the stress response to survive in the wild should provide insights into why mechanisms evolved the way that they did. The second goal is to provide predictions on how wild animals might cope with the Anthropocene, the current period of Earth's history characterized by the massive human remodeling of habitats on a global scale. Conservation of species will rely upon how wild animals use their stress response to successfully cope with human-created stressors. -- from back cover Cover 1 Series 3 Tempests, Poxes, Predators, and People 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Part I: Biology of Stress 10 1. Environment and the Earth: A Stressful Planet 12 2. Mediators of Stress 32 3. Models of Stress 78 4. The Classic Stress Response 124 5. Impacts on Physiological and Behavioral Systems 158 Part II: Coping with a Capricious Environment 206 6. Field Techniques: Measuring Stress Responses in Wild Animals 208 7. Responses to Natural Perturbations: Variation in Available Energy 272 8. Responses to Natural Perturbations: Tempests—Weather and Climate Events 318 9. Responses to Natural Perturbations: Poxes, Predators, and Personalities 362 10. Modulation of the Adrenocortical Response to Stress 406 11. Development, Environmental, and Maternal Effects 456 12. Global Change: Consequences of Human Disturbance 496 13. Global Change: Conservation Implications and the Role of Stress Physiology 530 14. Conclusions and the Future 564 Glossary of Species Names 592 Index 600 Most physiological and behavioral mechanisms that comprise the stress response come from laboratory experiments using domesticated animals. This book summarizes work to understand stress in natural contexts.