Zoo Animal Feeding: A Natural History Viewpoint
In order to formulate animal feeding programs, zoos traditionally borrow knowledge and techniques, developed for domesticated animals, from livestock industry. Although livestock industry provides some of the basic components of feeding it is aimed at economic gain from animals, and the number of species it covers is extremely small. Moreover, wild animals are forced to […]
Cryptoprocta ferox
Stress in free-ranging mammals: integrating physiology, ecology, and natural history
We review developments in the study of stress in free-ranging mammals and summarize the physiological and behavioral components of the stress response. Both the sympathetic nervous system response and the regulation and reactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis are discussed. In particular, we describe how the activity of the HPA axis at baseline levels follows […]