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Sanderson, JL, Nichols, HJ, Marshall, HH, Vitikainen, EIK, Thompson, FJ, Walker, SL, Cant, MA and Young, AJ (2015) Elevated glucocorticoid concentrations during gestation predict reduced reproductive success in subordinate female banded mongooses. BIOLOGY LETTERS, 11 (10). ISSN 1744-9561
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Abstract
Dominant females in social species have been hypothesised to reduce the reproductive success of their subordinates by inducing elevated circulating glucocorticoid concentrations. However, this ‘stress-related suppression’ hypothesis has received little support in cooperatively breeding species, despite evident reproductive skews among females. We tested this hypothesis in the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), a cooperative mammal in which multiple females conceive and carry to term in each communal breeding attempt. As predicted, lower-ranked females had lower reproductive success, even among females that carried to term. While there were no rank-related differences in faecal glucocorticoid (fGC) concentrations prior to gestation or in the first trimester, lower-ranked females had significantly higher fGC concentrations than higher-ranked females in the second and third trimesters. Finally, females with higher fGC concentrations during the third trimester lost a greater proportion of their gestated young prior to their emergence from the burrow. Together, our results are consistent with a role for rank-related maternal stress in generating reproductive skew among females in this cooperative breeder. While studies of reproductive skew frequently consider the possibility that rank-related stress reduces the conception rates of subordinates, our findings highlight the possibility of detrimental effects on reproductive outcomes even after pregnancies have become established.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 06 Biological Sciences |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QL Zoology |
| Divisions: | Natural Sciences & Psychology (closed 31 Aug 19) |
| Publisher: | ROYAL SOC |
| Related URLs: | |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Jan 2016 13:54 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2021 04:24 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0620 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2573 |
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