Categories | Cohort 1 | Cohort 2 | Cohort 3 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subject characteristics | n = 10 rehabilitated, adult hedgehogs | n = 15 rehabilitated, juvenile hedgehogs | n = 8 wild hedgehogs (3 juveniles, 5 unidentified) | |||
 |  | n = 10 wild, juvenile hedgehogs |  | |||
Glucocorticoid analyses | Â | Â | Â | |||
Sampling | Faecal samples (n = 10) | Saliva samples (n = 57) | Saliva samples (n = 4) | |||
 |  | Faecal samples (n = 67) | Faecal samples (n = 9) | |||
 |  | Sampling before (wild) and during captivity (both groups) and post release (both groups) |  | |||
Laboratory procedure | Testing: | Testing: | Testing: | |||
 | Faecal corticosterone metabolite levels (n = 10) | Faecal corticosterone metabolite levels (n = 67) | Faecal corticosterone metabolite levels (n = 9) | |||
 |  | Saliva corticosterone levels (n = 57) | Faecal cortisol metabolite levels (n = 7) | |||
 |  |  | Saliva cortisol levels (n = 4) | |||
Personality testing | Not performed | Novel arena test on day 1 in enclosures | Not performed | |||
 |  | Novel object tests on day 3 and 5 in enclosures |  | |||
Release into the wild | Not performed | After 7 days in enclosures (n = 18, 8 rehabilitated and 10 wild juveniles) | Already free-living | |||
Post release monitoring of survival and spatial behaviour | Not performed | Radio tracking of 18 juveniles, out of which 1 was unaccounted for | Results not included in the present study: Radio tracking of the 3 radio tagged wild juveniles (Rasmussen et al. (2019)) | |||
Data analyses | Â | Â | Â | |||
 Faecal corticosterone metabolite levels in relation to background, sex and health | Linear mixed effects model (LME) for all cohorts | Linear mixed effects model (LME) for all cohorts | Linear mixed effects model (LME) for all cohorts | |||
 Saliva corticosterone levels in relation to background, sex and health |  | Linear mixed effects model (LME) |  | |||
 Personality (novel arena and novel object tests) |  | Principal component analyses (PCA) |  | |||
 Effects of personality (shy/bold) and background (wild/rehabilitated) on post release survival |  | Fisher's exact test |  |