<b>Non-Invasive Monitoring of Reproduction in Zoo and Wildlife Species</b>

‘Winner effect’ without winning: Unresolved social conflicts increase the probability of winning a subsequent contest in a cichlid fish

“…Oliveira et al [16] and Hirschenhauser et al [17] failed to detect an androgen response during a mirror fight in the nile tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus and the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), respectively. However, these authors measured androgens in urine and feces, respectively, which are often assumed to correspond well with circulating levels [18][19][20]. However, several factors can affect the interpretation of such measures, such as the unclear temporal relationship between acute androgen responses in the circulation and their subsequent release into the environment via the digestive or excretory systems; the frequency of urination and defecation, which can depend on social cues; the metabolized nature of the hormones released this way; and possible cross-reactivity to metabolites from other steroid hormones [20][21][22].…”

Non-invasive measurement of steroids in fish-holding water: important considerations when applying the procedure to behaviour studies

“…One way to overcome some of these problems is to 'non-invasively' measure the amounts of steroid that are released by fish into water. In terrestrial vertebrates, this has primarily been achieved by measurement of the rate of excretion of free (i.e., without any conjugating group such as a sulphate or glucuronide) or conjugated steroid metabolites in urine (Graham, 2004), faeces (Palme, 2005), saliva (Beerda et al, 1996) or hair (Koren et al, 2002). Although measurement of steroids has also been applied to fish urine (Oliveira et al, 2001) and faeces (Oliveira et al, 1999;Turner et al, 2003), a much simpler and more direct approach is available.…”

Estradiol and progesterone fecal metabolites analysis in crab-eating-fox (Cerdocyoun thous)

“…The parallelism should indicate the correlation coefficient (r) near 1, being considered acceptable values of recovery from 0.85 to 1.15 (Brown, 2008), and 0.9 to 1.10 (Graham, 2001). In our essay was verified parallelism between the standard diagnostic set curve and the curve obtained from the pool of female's feces to progesterone and estradiol.…”