The long-term impacts of forest lost could lead to diminishing populations, poorer diets and other consequences for some animals.
at smaller mammals like rodents and marsupials in forest remnants, specifically evaluating stress levels in individual animals. To do that, they examined glucocorticoid concentrations — a steroid that indicates stress in organisms.
They found that rodents and marsupials responded very differently to fragmented land areas in the reserve. For example, some marsupials like Tate’s woolly mouse opossum were scarce in more fragmented areas. High stress can result in a number of negative outcomes for organisms. Other research has shown that stress can affect the immune responses of species, making them more susceptible to disease or parasites. “In a lot of areas where you have a lot of stress, especially if it’s stress related to food, you can have individuals that aren’t reproducing as much,” Boyle adds.