Blubber cortisol: a potential tool for assessing stress response in free-ranging dolphins without effects due to sampling.

When paired with dart biopsying, quantifying cortisol in blubber tissue may provide an index of relative stress levels (i.e., activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) in free-ranging cetacean populations while minimizing the effects of the act of sampling. To validate this approach, co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nicholas M Kellar, Krista N Catelani, Michelle N Robbins, Marisa L Trego, Camryn D Allen, Kerri Danil, Susan J Chivers
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4314064?pdf=render