Social conflict and costs of cooperation in meerkats are reflected in measures of stress hormones

Ben Dantzer, Nigel C. Bennett and Tim H. Clutton-Brock

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 4, 1131-1141

Abstract: Lay SummaryMeasures of stress hormones reveal the challenges faced by socially subordinate meerkats. We studied the causes of variation in stress hormones in group-living wild meerkats. We found that stress hormones in subordinate meerkats were affected by the amount of conflict with socially dominant breeders and also by conflict with other group members, whether they were caring for offspring, and their own body condition. Our study highlights how factors of the social group in addition to those of the individual and ecological environment affect stress levels in highly social animals.Twitter: @ben_dantzer

Keywords: Animal societies; cooperative breeding; glucocorticoids; meerkats; sociality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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