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Life at the top: rank and stress in wild male baboons.


ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Gesquiere LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3433837 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Life at the top: rank and stress in wild male baboons.

Gesquiere Laurence R LR   Learn Niki H NH   Simao M Carolina M MC   Onyango Patrick O PO   Alberts Susan C SC   Altmann Jeanne J  

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20110701 6040


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 test  ...[more]

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