Cortisol levels are positively associated with pup-feeding rates in male meerkats

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dc.contributor.authorCarlson A.A.
dc.contributor.authorManser M.B.
dc.contributor.authorYoung A.J.
dc.contributor.authorRussell A.F.
dc.contributor.authorJordan N.R.
dc.contributor.authorMcNeilly A.S.
dc.contributor.authorClutton-Brock T.
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-15T16:00:25Z
dc.date.available2011-05-15T16:00:25Z
dc.date.issued2006
dc.description.abstractIn societies of cooperative vertebrates, individual differences in contributions to offspring care are commonly substantial. Recent attempts to explain the causes of this variation have focused on correlations between contributions to care and the protein hormone prolactin, or the steroid hormone testosterone. However, such studies have seldom considered the importance of other hormones or controlled for nonhormonal factors that are correlative with both individual hormone levels and contributions to care. Using multivariate statistics, we show that hormone levels explain significant variation in contributions to pup-feeding by male meerkats, even after controlling for non-hormonal effects. However, long-term contributions to pup provisioning were significantly and positively correlated with plasma levels of cortisol rather than prolactin, while plasma levels of testosterone were not related to individual patterns of pup-feeding. Furthermore, a playback experiment that used pup begging calls to increase the feeding rates of male helpers gave rise to parallel increases in plasma cortisol levels, whilst prolactin and testosterone levels remained unchanged. Our findings confirm that hormones can explain significant amounts of variation in contributions to offspring feeding, and that cortisol, not prolactin, is the hormone most strongly associated with pup-feeding in cooperative male meerkats. © 2005 The Royal Society.
dc.description.versionArticle
dc.identifier.citationProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
dc.identifier.citation273
dc.identifier.citation1586
dc.identifier.issn9628452
dc.identifier.other10.1098/rspb.2005.3087
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/11686
dc.subjecthydrocortisone
dc.subjectprolactin
dc.subjecttestosterone
dc.subjectcarnivore
dc.subjectcooperative behavior
dc.subjectfeeding
dc.subjectfood provisioning
dc.subjectmale
dc.subjectmammal
dc.subjectmultivariate analysis
dc.subjectparental care
dc.subjecttestosterone
dc.subjectanimal behavior
dc.subjectanimal experiment
dc.subjectarticle
dc.subjectCarnivora
dc.subjectcontrolled study
dc.subjectcorrelation analysis
dc.subjectfeeding behavior
dc.subjecthydrocortisone blood level
dc.subjectmale
dc.subjectmeerkat
dc.subjectmultivariate analysis
dc.subjectnonhuman
dc.subjectpriority journal
dc.subjectprogeny
dc.subjectprolactin blood level
dc.subjecttestosterone blood level
dc.subjectVertebrata
dc.titleCortisol levels are positively associated with pup-feeding rates in male meerkats
dc.typeArticle
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