Reaction to article

I read this article with some interest.

The part that made me scribble this little post is this:

"Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said measuring hormone levels may not tell the story as well as observing listless or repetitive behavior."

Stress hormone levels are the best indicators of stress as behaviours are the result of biochemistry and physiology of the animal. The animal would not show signs of stress without increased cortisol levels driving such behaviours. Mr Pacelle received his training in History and Environmental Studies, so he might need to be a little more open to physiological studies. The pacing comment was especially interesting, because it showed that repetitive behaviour is not necessarily equivalent to stress, because the physiology does not match up. This is one great example how animal biology should work, biochemistry and physiology and all the other facets like behaviour, etc, must be integrated to give us a full picture of the situation. What we feel is happening just by viewing is just that, our feeling. Which very often, is wrong.