Life at the top: rank and stress in wild male baboons
Date
2011Author
Gesquiere, LR
Learn, NH
Simao, MCM
Onyango, PO
Alberts, SC.
Altmann, J
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In social hierarchies, dominant individuals experience reproductive and health benefits, but the costs of social dominance remain a topic of debate. Prevailing hypotheses predict that higher-ranking males experience higher testosterone and glucocorticoid (stress hormone) levels than lower-ranking males when hierarchies are unstable but not otherwise. In this long-term study of rank-related stress in a natural population of savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus), high-ranking males had higher testosterone and lower glucocorticoid levels than other males, regardless of hierarchy stability. The singular exception was for the highest-ranking (alpha) males, who exhibited both high testosterone and high glucocorticoid levels. In particular, alpha males exhibited much higher stress hormone levels than second-ranking (beta) males, suggesting that being at the very top may be more costly than previously thought.
URI
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/357.shorthttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/39883
Citation
Science Magazine 15 July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6040 pp. 357-360Publisher
Univesity of Nairobi Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology