CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

AbstractContext. The use of wild guanacos (Lama guanicoe) through live capture and shearing may contribute to theirconservation by providing an economic alternative to rural inhabitants. However, none of the biological impacts of thisactivity, including the physiological ones, have been addressed.Aims. The aim of this work was to characterise the acute response of guanacos to stress after capture and shearing in termsof serum cortisol levels, heart rate, and body temperature.Methods. The study was performed during 2006 and 2007 in La Payunia Reserve in western Argentina. In order todetermine serum cortisol concentration, 128 blood samples were obtained and the unextracted sera were analysed byradioimmunoanalyses (RIA). Sex, age category, heart rate, body temperature and total restraint time (TRT) were alsoregistered for each animal captured.Key results. Serum cortisol levels were higher in guanacos captured and sheared during 2007 than in 2006, and malecortisol levels were consistently lower than female levels. No significant differences were observed in cortisol levels of thedifferent age categories.Apositive correlation was observed between TRT and serum cortisol concentration. The analyses ofcortisol levels in relation to TRT showed differences between males and females. With handling periods longer than80 minutes, females showed a delayed stabilisation in cortisol response when compared with males. Heart rate and bodytemperature showed no differences between year, sex or age categories.Conclusions. The present results show that the stress response to capture and shearing in wild guanacos increasedsignificantly with handling time.Werecommend avoiding capture of large numbers of animals and keeping roundup durationshort to reduce TRT.Implications. This work provides new information that can improve guanaco welfare during handling and shearing andmay have implications for the conservation of the species.