Cortisol concentration in hair of the Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica Gmelin 1788, Carnivora, Phocidae): the effects of sex, age, and the dynamics of ice destruction

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Abstract

Measuring hair cortisol concentrations is a widespread method of hormonal research in natural populations. In particular, it has increasingly been used for assessing the chronic physiological stress over long time periods. This study showed for the first time the experience of using hair of Baikal seals to examine their hormonal status. We collected hair samples from live Baikal seals captured during summer expeditions to the Ushkany Islands, Lake Baikal in 2019 and 2021. Age differences in hair cortisol concentration were found: hair cortisol levels were higher among the young seals and declined with age. We suppose this may be related to different extents of nutritional stress, hunting success and social factors on summer rookeries. There was no sex effect on hair cortisol in young animals. We observed that hair cortisol concentrations were higher in young animals captured in 2019 compared to seals taken in 2021, with no differences in ice conditions between these years found.

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About the authors

P. Yu. Shibanova

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: polina_shibanova@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119071

M. A. Solovyeva

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: polina_shibanova@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119071

P. S. Zhuravleva

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: polina_shibanova@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119071

D. M. Glazov

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: polina_shibanova@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119071

V. V. Rozhnov

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: polina_shibanova@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119071

S. V. Naidenko

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: polina_shibanova@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119071

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2. Fig. 1. Hair collection from Baikal seal

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3. Fig. 2. Ice distribution on Lake Baikal in spring 2021 based on satellite images (Modis device, Terra satellite), http://sputnik.irk.ru/

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4. Fig. 3. Cortisol concentration in seal hair in the summer 2021 sample (Ushkany Islands). The median is indicated, 1st and 3rd quartiles are the boundaries of the “box”, the maximum and minimum are the boundaries of the “whiskers”.

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5. Fig. 4. Cortisol concentration in the hair of young seals caught in the summers of 2019 and 2021 on the Ushkany Islands. The median is indicated, the 1st and 3rd quartiles are the boundaries of the “box”, the maximum and minimum are the boundaries of the “whiskers”.

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