The assumption that the acute response to stress is adaptive is pervasive in the literature,
but there is little direct evidence regarding potential positive fitness consequences of an …

Non-invasive endocrinology utilizes non-invasive biological samples (such as faeces, urine,
hair, aquatic media, and saliva) for the quantification of hormones in wildlife. Urinary-based …

In species where offspring fitness is sex-specifically influenced by maternal reproductive
condition, sex allocation theory predicts that poor-quality mothers should invest in the …

Research on live vertebrates is regulated by ethics committees, who prohibitexcessively
stressful'procedures. That judgment is based on intuition–a notoriously unreliable criterion …

Glucocorticoid steroids modulate immunocompetence in complex ways with both
immunoenhancing and immunosuppressive effects in vertebrates exposed to different …

Experimental glucocorticoid (GC) manipulations can be useful for identifying the
mechanisms that drive life‐history and fitness variation in free‐living animals, but predicting …

A challenge to ecologists and evolutionary biologists is predicting organismal responses to
the anticipated changes to global ecosystems through climate change. Most evidence …

One of the most comprehensively studied responses to stressors in vertebrates is the
endogenous production and regulation of glucocorticoids (GCs). Extensive laboratory …

Maternal glucocorticoids are known to affect offspring phenotype in numerous vertebrate
taxa. In birds, the maternal transfer of corticosterone to eggs was recently proposed as a …

New Zealand lizard species are characterised by their high incidence of viviparity (99% of
taxa) and 'slow'life histories. Female geckos and skinks typically mate and begin …