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Life Sciences

Utah State University

Theses/Dissertations

2019

Stress

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Landscape Of Stress: Does Drought Prevail Over Anthropogenic Activity In Influencing Cortisol Levels And Fitness In The Pacific Fisher?, Jennifer R. Kordosky May 2019

Landscape Of Stress: Does Drought Prevail Over Anthropogenic Activity In Influencing Cortisol Levels And Fitness In The Pacific Fisher?, Jennifer R. Kordosky

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are a species of concern in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone released to mobilize energy in response to stress and has been used as an indication of an individual’s physiological response to its environment. By collecting samples of fisher hair and measuring an individual’s cortisol, we examined the physiological stress response of the animals to human disturbances (housing density, road density, habitat type, and silvicultural treatements) and drought (tree mortality) in their home ranges. Using AICc model selection, we found that levels of tree mortality within a fisher’s home …