Testing animal stress caused by ecotourism - Wildlife - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), August, 2002

A University of Missouri-Columbia researcher is using an unusual method to measure stress levels on elephants caused by growing ecotourism in South Africa's national parks. The same research can be applied to protecting wildlife in heavily visited state and national parks across the U.S., suggests Josh Millspaugh, assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife sciences.

Millspaugh measures stress levels by analyzing hormones extracted from wildlife fecal samples. Comparisons are made of samples collected from selected elephants occupying ranges near and far from heavily used roads and sites of human-animal interaction. Whenever any vertebrate is stressed, an endocrine response releases glucocorticoids, a general class of stress hormones. Millspaugh looks for a specific hormone, corctiscosterone. The animal's stress level can be correlated to the amount of the hormone found in the samples.

"The long-term future of African elephants is of great concern to wildlife conservationists. In the past 15 years, elephant numbers have decreased by up to 50% in some portions of Africa," he points out. "Ecotourism is well-established in many game parks and reserves in Africa and represents a potentially significant disturbance to animals. The same potential for such disturbance may exist in our U.S. parks that attract record number of visitors each year."

Stress hormone methods can be applied across species. In Millspaugh's earlier research, preliminary data indicated that human interaction increased stress levels in elk in South Dakota and Washington State. "We have not addressed to a large degree the effect of human activity on wildlife in our state and national parks. And more and more use of these areas could disrupt wildlife populations." The economic impact generated by state and national parks makes preserving the well-being of park wildlife critical to surrounding areas, he maintains.

The primary sample collection site for elephant data is Pilanesberg National Park, one of South Africa's premier tourist attractions, a two hours' drive northwest of Johannesburg. In 1979, the park was the site of the largest game translocation ever undertaken up to that time. The project, called Operation Genesis, moved 6,000 animals of 21 different species.

Pilanesberg is one of Africa's "Big Five" parks. That is, it hosts populations of five key species--lions, leopards, black and white rhinos, African buffalos, and elephants. The 138,000-acre park is surrounded by a high, electrified fence and segmented into zones, in which varying amounts of human-animal interaction are permitted, making it ideal for such research, Millspaugh says.