Stress on wild fowls with varying levels of recreational use of habitats

In 2007/2008, a study on stress hormone measurements from the slogan of wild fowls was published (Thiel et al. 2008). This was the reason for a practical project using this simple method. It should check whether interference with the local caustic chicken population could already be demonstrated in Gesäuse/Gscheidegg due to the high frequency of ski tourers. The hypotheses at that time were simple: Where tourers are common, Auerchickens show higher levels of stress hormone than in an unencumbered comparative area. Unexpectedly, however, the stress levels in the heavily polluted areas were significantly lower than in the unencumbered areas at that time. It seemed worth checking whether additional habitat-related parameters could explain these patterns, or whether the capercake might have been used to regular disturbances and therefore showed no reaction (Fowler 1999; Romero & Wikelski 2002).