John C. Wingfield¹ & Bengt Silverin²

1Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, e-mail jwingfie@u.washington.edu; ²Department of Zoology, University Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden, e-mail bengt.silverin@zool.gu.se

Wingfield, J.C. & Silverin, B. 1999. Ecological bases of endocrine phenomena. In: Adams, N.J. & Slotow, R.H. (eds) Proc. 22 Int. Ornithol. Congr., Durban: 1209. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

Over the past two decades, field endocrine techniques have been used extensively to investigate changes in hormone secretions in free-living birds of over 100 species. Furthermore, experimental manipulations of hormones and behavioural challenges in free-living birds have provided a huge and unique database for the potential analysis of ecological bases of endocrine phenomena. This in turn may allow further experimental investigations to study the interrelationships of environment, life cycles, and endocrine control mechanisms. The papers in this symposium will address the spectrum of techniques now available for ecologically oriented experiments in endocrinology, and how they may be applied. Future research directions will also be addressed.