Does Light Composition Impact Stress Levels of Shelter Cats?

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Mary Gardella

Abstract or Description

While animal shelters are essential for keeping cats safe from unfit living conditions, they are a stressful environment. Stress increases cortisol and promotes undesired behaviors such as aggression and hiding. Reducing stress in shelter cats can make them more attractive for prospective adopters and reduce the duration of time in the shelter. Previous studies found that light composition impacts behavior, where blue light has an arousing effect, while dim and red light is calming. Based on this, we investigated how cats are affected by the shelter room light composition. We hypothesize that reducing light intensity and removing blue light wavelength will reduce cat stress as compared to white lighting. Three lighting conditions were studied (white, dim and blue-depleted light) during the first 6 days the cats were in the shelter, with assessment of stress through cortisol measures and behavioral approach tests in adult, single housed male and female cats. For all conditions, behavioral stress scores decreased over the enrollment period. A significant correlation was found between cortisol levels and behavior stress scores for cats on white light, but not on dim and blue-depleted light. Interestingly, preliminary data show that female cats had lower behavioral stress scores and lower cortisol levels on blue-depleted and dim light, as compared to white light. Male data is less clear, but trends in the same direction. This shows for the first time that room light manipulation can help shelters enact easy and inexpensive changes that make the adjustment period shorter and easier for incoming cats. 

Mentor

Jacquelyn Jacobs, Hanne Hoffmann, Alexandra Yaw