Md. Kreger et Ja. Mench, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL-EFFECTS OF HANDLING AND RESTRAINT IN THEBALL PYTHON (PYTHON-REGIUS) AND THE BLUE-TONGUED SKINK (TILIQUA-SCINCOIDES), Applied animal behaviour science, 38(3-4), 1993, pp. 323-336
Four handling techniques commonly used with snakes and lizards in zool
ogical park reptile collections were evaluated with respect to animal
well-being. Adult male blue-tongued skinks (n = 3) and ball pythons (n
= 4) were either handled gently, restrained manually, or container re
strained for 10 min. The animals were then released into their enclosu
res for 15 min and blood sampled. At each sampling period, one animal
served as an unhandled control. Plasma corticosterone (CS) levels, pre
- and post-treatment locomotor and consummatory activities, and hetero
phil/lymphocyte ratios were determined. None of the parameters evaluat
ed differed significantly among treatments with the exception of CS le
vels in container-restrained pythons (56.2 +/- 6.7 ng ml-1), which wer
e higher (P < 0.05) than those of controls (37.6 +/- 6.1 ng ml-1). Bri
ef periods of handling in captivity thus do not appear to cause chroni
c stress in the study species, although container restraint did appear
to result in short-term stress in pythons.