Within-sample variation in snowshoe hare faecal glucocorticoid metabolite measurements

Measures of stress hormone levels, specifically glucocorticoids and their metabolites, are increasingly used to index the stress burden experienced by wildlife. However, within-sample variation may affect interpretations of results. Here we quantified within-sample variation in faecal cortisol metabolite concentrations and conducted a power analysis to demonstrate sample-size requirements for detecting meaningful differences in stress hormone levels in wildlife populations following an environmental perturbation.