Muskox Wooly undercoat: Unexpected tool for health monitoring and conservation
MUSKOX WOOLY UNDERCOAT: UNEXPECTED TOOL FOR HEALTH MONITORING AND CONSERVATION
Qiviut cortisol in muskoxen as a potential tool for informing conservation strategies
Di Francesco, J., Navarro-Gonzalez, N., Wynne-Edwards, K., Peacock, S., Leclerc, L.M., Tomaselli, M., Davison, T., Carlsson, A. and Kutz, S. (2017). Conservation Physiology, 5(1), cox052.
https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cox052
Climate change leads to more than an increase in ambient temperature. For example, it increases the occurrence of extreme heat events and disease spreading. These consequences are especially true, and perhaps more severe, for populations of animals with low genetic variability or those adapted to cold climates. These populations are increasingly exposed to multiple stressors and at risk of extinction. Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) are large herbivores adapted for life in the cold Arctic, whose populations in the Canadian North have been declining. These declines have considerable consequences for local aboriginal communities, who rely on these animals as a source of nutrition and an important cultural element. While the underlying causes for their decline remains largely unknown, ecological alterations and disease emergence linked to climate change are thought to be at play. This may occur through changes in cortisol levels, which, in the short-term, have an adaptive coping value, but in the long-term have detrimental effects. An exciting new method has been developed recently, where cortisol levels from the previous weeks to months were determined from the wooly undercoat (also known as qiviut) of 150 wild muskox. The findings revealed high variability among individuals, with males having higher cortisol levels than females, perhaps reflecting social dominance hierarchies. Additionally, summer levels were lower than fall and winter levels, perhaps because of the breeding season, or due to stress related to various seasonal factors. Samples obtained in more recent years showed greater levels of cortisol, indicating an increase in stress within the population. While the exact mechanism behind these patterns is not fully understood, this approach may offer a valuable conservation tool to obtain information about the health status of a population at risk.
Kim Birnie-Gauvin, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Denmark.