RESEARCH ARTICLE Glucocorticoid Stress Responses of Reintroduced Tigers in Relation to Anthropogenic Disturbance in Sariska Tiger Reserve in India

Tiger (Panthera tigris), an endangered species, is under severe threat from poaching, habi-tat loss, prey depletion and habitat disturbance. Such factors have been reported causing local extermination of tiger populations including in one of the most important reserves in India, namely Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in northwestern India. Consequently, tigers were reintroduced in STR between 2008 and 2010, but inadequate breeding success was observed over the years, thus invoking an investigation to ascertain physiological corre-lates. In the present study, we report glucocorticoid stress responses of the reintroduced ti-gers in relation to anthropogenic disturbance in the STR from 2011 to 2013. We found anthropogenic disturbance such as encounter rates of livestock and humans, distance to roads and efforts to kill domestic livestock associated with an elevation in fecal glucocorti-coid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations in the monitored tigers. In this regard, female tigers seemmore sensitive to such disturbance than males. It was possible to discern that tiger’s fGCM levels were significantly positively related to the time spent in disturbed areas. Result-ing management recommendations include relocation of villages from core areas and re-striction of all anthropogenic activities in the entire STR