Physiological stress of American pika (Ochotona princeps) and associated habitat characteristics for Niwot Ridge, 2018 - 2019

Temporal variation in a metric of stress might signify changes in an
organism’s internal or external environment, but spatial variation in
stress response could also signify spatial variation in habitat
quality. Any stress response to habitat quality can be complicated or
modulated, however, by strategies like escape in space (e.g., animal
movements) or time (e.g., seed banks) that allow access to different
conditions. Spatial and temporal variation in response to potential
stressors has received little study in wild animals, especially at
scales appropriate for relating stress to specific habitat
characteristics. Here, we use the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a
highly territorial small mammal, to investigate stress response within
and among territories. For individually territorial animals such as
pika, differences in habitat quality should lead to differences in the
levels of stress exhibited by territory owners. In this study, we
indexed stress by measuring stress hormone metabolites in feces
collected non-invasively from pika territories. Feces were collected
from 20 territories every two weeks from June to September of 2018
(pika_fecal_glut.aw.data.csv). In 2019, habitat metrics were recorded
at each territory (pika_fecal_glut_habitat.aw.data.csv).