Multi‐Year Assessment of the Effects of Tourism on Physiological Parameters of the Northern Bahamian Rock Iguana ( <i>Cyclura cychlura</i> )

Humans continue to influence the behavior, physiology and overall status of wildlife, yet how these influences persist over time are not fully understood and likely vary across circumstance and species. Interactions specifically associated with ecotourism and food provisioning have the potential to impact the behavior and physiology of wildlife significantly, especially when it includes the practice of feeding. To better understand whether ecotourism-induced changes in physiology persist over time and the resulting on-going impacts on populations, monitoring across time is needed. We measured immune, energetic, and traditional stress metrics of two Northern Bahamian Rock Iguana (Cyclura cychlura) subspecies (C. c. inornata and C. c. figginsi) across several years in response to body condition and reproductive status, in six insular populations of varying degrees of tourist visitation. We used plasma samples to quantify energy metabolites, immune function, oxidative stress, and plasma corticosterone concentration. Reproductive status in females was a consistently important explanatory factor for oxidative stress, energy metabolites, and bacterial killing ability. For both subspecies, populations with no tourist visitation consistently had lower levels of oxidative stress, bacterial killing ability, and energy metabolites than those that experienced moderate to high levels of tourism, but they also had demonstrated higher levels of corticosterone. Corticosterone and bacterial killing ability varied across years, suggesting that annual differences in physiology are likely to play an important role in long-term population health. Given the impacts of human activity on animal health over time, continual population monitoring of multiple physiological health metrics is needed for greater insight into the long-term impacts of anthropogenic factors on vulnerable species.