LE3 .A278 2010

2010

Shutler, Dave

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Biology

Biology

Ecologists are increasingly interested in how hormones help species adapt to their environment. Corticosterone is a hormone which regularly circulates in an individual’s blood stream, and concentrations increase when individuals are stressed. Corticosterone can cause the liver to release glucose as an energy source to contend with stress. For this reason it is commonly known as a stress hormone. My objectives were to test if corticosterone was related to handling time, age group, sex, mass, and size in Leach’s storm- petrels ( Oceanodroma leucorhoa). I also wanted to test if there was a relationship between a chick’s corticosterone concentration and that of its parent’s. Field work was conducted on Bon Portage Island in Nova Scotia; here Leach’s storm- petrels were retrieved from their burrow nests and blood was collected to assay corticosterone and to genetically sex the petrels ( males and females are visually indistinguishable). Corticosterone concentration did not significantly increase with longer handling time for adults, but did for chicks. Overall handling time was the most significant predictor of corticosterone concentration. There was no difference in corticosterone concentration of males versus females or between adults versus chicks and was unrelated to mass, size, and age group. Finally there was a positive relationship between a parent’s corticosterone concentrations and that of its chick. Although there are few studies on corticosterone in Leach’s storm- petrels, my results on corticosterone concentration and handling stress, age, sex, size, and mass are consistent with data from related species. 1

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:732