Meeting Abstract
Early life experiences can alter social behavior, physiology, and life history trajectories of individuals by serving as a predictor for the environment an animal will experience as an adult, potentially affecting the development of plastic traits. In particular, stress experienced during development has been implicated in the modulation of the adrenocortical stress response, affecting the robustness and responsiveness of the physiological response to stressors later in life. The physiological stress response may be a mechanism underlying behavioral traits such as anxiety or boldness that are important in coping with stressors. An individual that develops under stressful conditions may have an elevated physiological stress response and altered behavioral responses in novel or stressful situations. We investigated the relationship between corticosterone levels and individual variation in anxiety and boldness behaviors in a population of wild brush mice (Peromyscus boylii) experiencing severe drought conditions in northern California. Preliminary data suggest there is a relationship between fecal corticosterone and boldness behavior in adult male brush mice that developed under stressful drought conditions. Mice with both high and low fecal corticosterone levels behaved more boldly, while mice with intermediate corticosterone levels behaved less boldly. As global climate change alters and increases the stressors populations face, it is imperative that we understand how organisms will respond physiologically and how the behavioral patterns important to coping with the stress will be shaped.
