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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology
Elevated prolactin levels immediately precede decisions to babysit by male meerkat helpers
Hormones and Behavior, Volume 50, No. 1, Year 2006
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Description
Recent studies suggest that decisions to care for the offspring of others in societies of cooperative vertebrates may have a hormonal basis. The crucial question of whether changes in hormone levels immediately precede or merely follow bouts of offspring care, however, remains largely unanswered. Here, we show that in wild groups of cooperatively breeding meerkats, male helpers that decided to babysit for the day had significantly higher levels of prolactin, coupled with lower levels of cortisol, before initiating a babysitting session compared with similarly aged individuals that decided to forage. In addition, these hormonal differences disappeared over the course of the day, suggesting that hormone levels changed in a fundamentally different way in meerkats that babysat versus those that foraged. In contrast, long-term contributions to babysitting were not significantly associated with plasma levels of prolactin, cortisol, or testosterone in individual male helpers. Our results show, for the first time, that elevated levels of prolactin may immediately precede bouts of helping behavior but differ from recent findings on the same study population in which plasma levels of cortisol, but not prolactin, were significantly and positively associated with rates of pup feeding by male helpers. Together, these results lend significant weight to the idea that decisions to help in cooperative vertebrates have a hormonal basis, although different hormones appear to be associated with different types of care. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Carlson, Anne A.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Russell, Andrew F.
United Kingdom, Sheffield
The University of Sheffield
Young, Andrew J.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Jordan, Neil R.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
McNeilly, Allan S.
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
Mrc Centre for Reproductive Health
Parlow, Al F.
United States, Torrance
Harbor-ucla Medical Center
Clutton-Brock, Tim H.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
South Africa, Pretoria
University of Pretoria
Statistics
Citations: 70
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.01.009
ISSN:
0018506X
e-ISSN:
10956867
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Participants Gender
Male