Eye Region Surface Temperature and Corticosterone Response to Acute Stress in a High-Arctic Seabird, the Little Auk.

Measuring changes in surface body temperature (specifically in eye-region) in vertebrates using infrared thermography is increasingly applied for detection of the stress reaction. Here we investigated the relationship between the eye-region temperature (TEYE; measured with infrared thermography), the corticosterone level in blood (CORT; stress indicator in birds), and some covariates (ambient temperature, humidity, and sex/body size) in a High-Arctic seabird, the Little Auk . The birds responded to the capture-restrain protocol (blood sampling at the moment of capturing, and after 30 min of restrain) by a significant TEYE and CORT increase.