Meeting Abstract
Many species are threatened with extinction and captive breeding programs to protect these species from extinction and produce individuals for eventual reintroduction are becoming more common. Under captivity, animals experience different stressors and have different levels of glucocorticoid hormones compared to individuals in the wild, potentially altering reproduction and other key behaviors and complicating captive breeding. The Puerto Rican Parrot Amazona vittata) recovery program provides a good platform to understand how glucocorticoids levels may relate to reproductive success under captive conditions. We measured fecal glucocorticoids of males of breeding pairs from 2 captive populations of Puerto Rican Parrots over 2 breeding seasons. Fecal samples were collected overnight from males while females incubated eggs and/or chicks in the breeding cavity and fecal glucocorticoids were measured with a corticosterone ELISA kit. We found considerable individual differences among males, with peaks after egg laying and chick hatching. The mean value of fecal glucocorticoids in 2017 was higher than in 2018. There was no clear relation between mean glucocorticoids of males and our primary measure of reproductive success, the number of fledglings produce by each male. These results provide a baseline for comparison with reintroduced populations of this endangered species.
