Reproductive rate, not dominance status, affects fecal glucocorticoid levels in breeding female meerkats
| Autor: | Marie-France Barrette, Andrew F. Russell, Tim H. Clutton-Brock, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Steven L. Monfort |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Aging medicine.medical_specialty Reproductive suppression Herpestidae Biology Feces Sexual Behavior Animal Behavioral Neuroscience Endocrinology Pregnancy Lactation Internal medicine Cooperative breeding medicine Animals Birth Rate Glucocorticoids Endocrine and Autonomic Systems Reproduction Body Weight Parturition medicine.disease medicine.anatomical_structure Social Dominance Gestation Female Glucocorticoid Demography medicine.drug Social status |
| Zdroj: | Hormones and Behavior. 61:463-471 |
| ISSN: | 0018-506X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.12.005 |
| Popis: | Glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) have been studied intensively to understand the associations between physiological stress and reproductive skew in animal societies. However, we have little appreciation of the range of either natural levels within and among individuals, or the associations among dominance status, reproductive rate and GCs levels during breeding. To address these shortcomings, we examined variation in fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGC) during breeding periods in free-ranging female meerkats ( Suricata suricatta ) over 11 years. The vast majority of variation in fGC levels was found within breeding events by the same female (~ 87%), with the remaining variation arising among breeding events and among females. Concentrations of fGC generally tripled as pregnancy progressed. However, females with a high reproductive rate, defined as those conceiving within a month following parturition (mean = 9 days postpartum), showed significant reductions in fGC in the final 2 weeks before parturition. Despite these reductions, females with a high reproductive rate had higher fGC levels at conception of the following litter than those breeding at a low rate. After controlling for the higher reproductive rate of dominants, we found no association between levels of fGC and either age or dominance status. Our results suggest that one should be cautious about interpreting associations between dominance status, reproductive skew and GCs levels, without knowledge of the natural variation in GCs levels within and among females. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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