This study examined adrenal and gonadal responses to capture and to longer term captivity in males of the scincid lizard, Egernia whitii. Animals subjected to acute capture stress in the field exhibited a rapid rise in plasma corticosterone concentrations that had not attenuated by 4 h after capture; plasma testosterone concentrations decreased significantly over this period. Animals returned to captive conditions in the laboratory showed little change in plasma corticosterone concentrations by 1 week, but concentrations were significantly lower at 4 weeks. Plasma testosterone did not vary significantly during this period. Sampling over a diel period indicated that plasma corticosterone concentrations vary little over the daylight hours; however, there was a significant decrease between the samples taken at 17:00 h and 21:00 h. These results suggest that, as in other species, the acute adrenal response to capture stress may confound assessment of other physiological parameters, although if experiments are carried out during daylight hours, time of sampling should have little influence on plasma corticosterone concentrations. The results also suggest that males of E. whitii require at least a week to adapt to captivity, although further studies investigating different captive conditions are warranted for this social species. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Zoology
Research Field:	Comparative physiology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences
UTAS Author:	Jones, SM (Professor Susan Jones)
UTAS Author:	Bell, KL (Miss Karen Leigh Bell)
ID Code:	34305
Year Published:	2004
Web of Science® Times Cited:	50
Deposited By:	Zoology
Deposited On:	2005-07-26
Last Modified:	2005-07-26
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