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Town and Country Reptiles: How Animals Respond to a Changing Environment
- 1. Town and Country Reptiles: How Animals Respond to a Changing Environment Susannah S. French Department of Biology & the Ecology Center
- 3. Why Reptiles? • Prevalent in different environments • Same hormones and functions • Natural variation in populations • Territorial
- 16. How do scientists monitor impact? Traditional methods: • Censuses • Demographic information • Behavioral data
- 18. Physiological Approach • Fast detection • Provides mechanisms & thus an understanding of HOW perturbations affect individuals • Provide insight for management
- 19. How do we measure stress? • Hormones! • Cortisol (& metabolites) • Same hormones in humans & reptiles
- 20. Cortisol / Corticosterone Energy mobilizing hormones • increases during predictable events that require energy • increases during stressful unpredictable events
- 21. Thus need to also make functional assessments
- 24. Why the Galapagos? • Increase in population and increase in ecotourism • Isolated animal populations • Varying frequency & intensity of ecotourism among populations
- 25. People on the Galapagos
- 26. People on the Galapagos
- 28. Why marine iguanas? • Studied for ~20 years • Not endangered • Seasonal breeders • Long-lived • Easily sampled
- 30. What we are measuring… • Body condition / ectoparasite prevalence
- 32. What we are measuring… • Body condition / ectoparasite prevalence • Female clutch size
- 34. What we are measuring… • Body condition / ectoparasite prevalence • Female clutch size • Cutaneous wound healing More than 50% of animals have a wound or a scar
- 36. What we are measuring… • Body condition / ectoparasite prevalence • Female clutch size • Cutaneous would healing • Stress response
- 38. What we are measuring… • Body condition / ectoparasite prevalence • Female clutch size • Cutaneous would healing • Stress response • Immune measures
- 40. Undisturbed Stress responsiveness, immunological & reproductive measures Pairs of sites in close proximity on 3 islands Tourist
- 43. Increase stress response at tourist sites
- 44. Decrease in wound healing at tourist sites
- 46. Increase in tourism leads to a decrease in bactericidal ability
- 48. Decrease of clutch sizes at tourist sites
- 49. Decrease of clutch sizes at tourist sites
- 51. A quick example of ocean activity data 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 2-Feb 3-Feb 4-Feb 5-Feb 6-Feb 7-Feb 8-Feb Temperature °C iguana oceano aire
- 52. A quick example of ocean activity data 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 0:00 6:00 11:49 12:00 18:00 0:00 Temperature °C 2 February iguana oceano aire 10:19 10:59 12:29
- 53. •Ecotourism •Altered endocrine responses •Altered immunity and reproduction •But what about the population?
- 55. Uta stansburiana: • Highly prolific • Territorial • Shorter-lived (1-2 years)
- 57. Urban Stress responsiveness, immunological & reproductive measures 8 research sites Rural
- 58. Indicator Urban Rural Stress increase decrease Immunity decrease increase Reproductionincrease decrease
- 59. Summary Stress
- 60. Do physiological changes translate to the population?
- 62. Applications of our work • Determine what populations are most susceptible • Determine what makes populations more susceptible
- 64. Acknowledgements Field & Lab Assistance: Geoffrey Smith Lori Neuman-Lee Andrew Durso Gareth Hopkins Austin Spence Marilize Van der Walt Heather Skinner Tyler Hansen Sydney Greenfield Herp group @ USU Funding Sources: UAES USU VPR National Science Foundation Edmund Brodie Jr. Alan Savitzky David Koons Bobby Fokidis Gregory Demas Dale DeNardo Michael Angilletta Peter Zani Erick Yucailla Nick Kiriazis Trevor Brown Desmond Brown
- 66. Questions?