Validation of an enzyme immunoassay and comparison of fecal cortisol metabolite levels in black and gold howler monkeys (<i>Alouatta caraya</i>) inhabiting fragmented and continuous areas of the humid Chaco region, Argentina
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In the last years, the study of how environmental stimuli influence the physiology and specifically the endocrinology of an organism became increasingly important, relying mainly on the quantification of glucocorticoids to monitor animal welfare. Most studies investigating cortisol levels in primates were focused on the impact of social stressors; however, a major concern for the conservation of howler monkeys is the increased habitat fragmentation led by the advancement of the agricultural frontier. We compared fecal cortisol metabolite levels (FGCM) in howler monkeys ( Alouatta caraya ) living in fragmented and continuous forests of the Argentine humid Chaco region, throughout the warm season (spring‐summer). Fecal samples ( n = 114) were collected from adult individuals, and steroid extracts analyzed with an enzyme immunoassay also validated in this work. Parallel displacement curves were obtained between dilutions of pooled fecal extracts and the cortisol standard curve ( r 2 = 0.99; P = 0.23). Efficiency of the fecal extraction procedure was 79.4% ± 38%; recovery of exogenous hormone added to fecal extracts indicated a low interference of components in the feces with antibody binding. The exogenous administration of ACTH in captive‐bred animals demonstrated a “cause‐and‐effect” relationship between the adrenal gland activation and increased FGCM levels. Contrary to our initial prediction, we were not able to demonstrate a significant difference in FGCM levels of caraya monkeys inhabiting the continuous versus fragmented habitats in our study site (83.2 ± 4.9 ng/g [ n = 10 individuals] vs. 71.5 ± 4.9 ng/g [ n = 7 individuals]; P = 0.29); this could be the result of low levels of disturbance imposed by a moderate and selective logging, which has proved to be beneficial for this species with high resilience by adjusting their diet to cope with feeding in degraded habitats but with new leaves and buds. Regardless of the habitat, cortisol metabolites were significantly higher in females than in males (86.4 ± 4.2 ng/g [ n = 12 individuals] vs. 60.7 ± 5.0 ng/g [n = 5 individuals] respectively; P = 0.007). RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Validation of an enzyme immunoassay and comparison of fecal cortisol metabolite levels in black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) inhabiting fragmented and continuous areas of the humid Chaco region, Argentina. Contrary to our initial prediction, no significant differences in Alouatta caraya fecal cortisol metabolite levels were detected; cortisol metabolites were significantly higher in females. Probably, animals adjusted their diet to cope with feeding in degraded habitats, but with new leaves and buds.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".