Acute Corticosterone Stress Response to Handling in Four Captive Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Corticosterone is the primary glucocorticoid hormone produced by reptiles in response to stressful stimuli. Evaluating hormone responses to stress in reptiles relies on acquiring baseline corticosterone levels; however, the stress associated with restraint needed to collect blood samples from animals can affect the results. Therefore, it is important to obtain a blood sample in a relatively short time after the capture of an animal. In some avian and reptilian species, a “3 min rule” has been determined, suggesting that blood samples collected within 3 min of capture are more likely to represent baseline corticosterone levels. The purpose of this study was to determine a time limit for collection of blood samples to evaluate baseline corticosterone concentrations in captive gopher tortoises, Gopherus polyphemus. Four nonreleasable, adult gopher tortoises were used for this study. All tortoises were acclimated to their captive environment for 10 months. Each tortoise was then manually restrained f...