Wild animals can experience trauma and adversity too

Psychologists understand how childhood trauma can have lasting effects on people, but animals also experience adversity with lifelong repercussions. Researchers are exploring how early life experiences shape animal behavior and survival in the wild, developing a cumulative adversity index similar to the adverse childhood experiences score for humans. A study on yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado used this index to predict survival outcomes, considering factors such as ecological stressors and parental influences, to gain insights into the impact of adversity on wild populations.

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