Stress in the wild: insights from conservation physiology

Speaker: Agnieszka Sergiel, PhD, Assoc. Prof. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences

Wildlife stress arises from a range of environmental, biological, and anthropogenic factors, impacting animal health, behavior, and population dynamics.
Understanding these stressors is crucial for conservation, animal welfare, and ecosystem management. Conservation physiology provides powerful, mechanistic insights into wildlife stress, enabling earlier and more precise conservation actions. While glucocorticoid measurement is central, interpreting stress in the wild requires context-specific, multi- faceted approaches. Ongoing research aims to refine these tools and expand their application across species and ecosystems for more effective conservation outcomes. In this talk, this approach will be exemplified using brown bear (Ursus arctos) and other species as models to link physiological biomarkers to environmental and anthropogenic stressors.

Host: Francesca Cagnacci

Internal seminar – FEM staff and invited guests only