UWEC CERCA 2026

In the context of human-induced rapid environmental change, long-term data on individually recognized social mammals have the potential to offer novel insights into the extent to which animals can cope with social and ecological stressors. Long-term studies are needed to investigate the impact of climate change on the fitness of beavers, and minimally invasive measures of stress physiology offer meaningful biomarkers of these effects in the lives of free-living mammals. Here we present preliminary results of a newly established collaboration with the Norwegian Beaver Project. Glucocorticoids (GC) are steroid hormones that reflect physiological stressors. Because we are extracting GC metabolites from hair samples rather than directly from blood, species-specific validation is required. Thus, we performed an analytical validation for Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) for (i) cortisol and (ii) corticosterone to identify the predominant hormones in our samples. Our analytical validation will inform our ability to make meaningful connections between hundreds of GC samples and individual-level life-history and habitat measures collected from approximately 25 beaver families since 1997 (i.e., 25 years). Going forward, uncovering the social, ecological, and anthropogenic factors linked to this important biomarker and its associated fitness consequences will advance conservation goals.