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Tourism and stress hormones: The troubling reality inside tiger habitats
Researchers report that tigers near tourism roads or with high human activity show elevated stress hormone levels. Surprisingly, core zones exhibit stronger stress responses to human disturbance than buffer zones, potentially affecting reproduction. The findings come from a study analyzing 610 scat samples collected from five reserves between 2020 and 2023, published in Animal Conservation.
Why It Matters
The results have implications for how India manages tiger reserves and wildlife tourism, suggesting regulators may need to limit vehicles, adjust safari timings, and better protect breeding areas to safeguard tiger wellbeing and reproduction.
Timeline
4 Events
Article reporting the study published
May 9, 2026
The article summarising the study and its management recommendations was published, highlighting higher stress near tourism and proposing measures such as stricter vehicle limits, reduced safari duration, stronger buffer-zone management, and safeguarding breeding hotspots.
Study published in Animal Conservation (ZSL)
May 8, 2026
The research, combining non-invasive stress and reproductive hormone analyses across five major tiger reserves, was published in the Zoological Society of London’s journal Animal Conservation. It measured faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (stress biomarker) and faecal progesterone metabolites (reproductive activity in females).
Sample collection completes for tiger stress study
2023
Collection concluded in 2023, with samples gathered across Corbett, Tadoba–Andhari, Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Periyar reserves to assess stress and reproductive hormones.
Sample collection begins for tiger stress study
2020
CSIR-CCMB researchers began collecting tiger scat samples for the study, with a total of 610 genetically confirmed samples planned to be gathered between 2020 and 2023 (291 from females and 185 from males) across five reserves.