Androgen correlates of male reproductive effort in wild male long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis): A multi-level test of the challenge hypothesis

PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

卷:141

Article

Girard-Buttoz, Cedric^1,2  Heistermann, Michael³  Rahmi, Erdiansyah⁴  Agil, Muhammad⁵  Fauzan, Panji Ahmad⁵  Engelhardt, Antje^1,2 

[1] German Primate Ctr, Jr Res Grp Primate Sexual Select, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Gottingen, Germany

[2] Univ Gottingen, Courant Res Ctr Evolut Social Behav, D-37073 Gottingen, Germany

[3] German Primate Ctr, Endocrinol Lab, D-37077 Gottingen, Germany

[4] Syiah Kuala Univ, Fac Vet Med, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

[5] Bogor Agr Univ, Fac Vet Med, Bogor, Indonesia

关键词: Challenge hypothesis;    Mammals;    Mate-guarding;    Male-male competition;    Dominance rank;    Female reproductive value;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.01.015

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The challenge hypothesis (Wingfield et al., 1990) has been broadly utilised as a conceptual framework to study male androgen correlates of reproductive challenges in mammals. These studies mainly assessed male androgen responsiveness to a general degree of challenge over extended periods of time. Short term co-variation between the socio-sexual challenging context and androgen levels remains, however, largely understudied. We thus aim at providing a multi-level test of the challenge hypothesis by investigating the inter-and intra-individual variations in faecal androgen excretion associated to 1) breeding seasonality, 2) dominance rank, 3) mate-guarding activity and 4) value of the guarded female. We studied long-tailed macaques, a species in which males engage in highly challenging monopolisation of females over discreet periods of time. This particularity allows testing specifically the predicted increase from level B to level C in the challenge hypothesis. The study was carried out during two reproductive seasons on three groups of wild long-tailed macaques. We combined behavioural observations and non-invasive measurements of faecal androgen metabolite (fAM) levels. We found that, as predicted by the challenge hypothesis, male long-tailed macaques respond not only to seasonal but also to short term reproductive challenges by adapting their androgen levels. First, males exhibited a seasonal rise in fAM levels during the mating period which may be triggered by fruit availability as shown by our phenological data. Second, males had increased androgen levels when mate-guarding females and, across mate-guarding periods, males had higher fAM levels when monopolising high-ranking parous females than when monopolising low-ranking ones. Finally, high-ranking males had higher fAM levels than low-ranking males year round. Our study confirms that, in species with a high degree of female monopolisability, androgen may be an important physiological fitness enhancing tool for males by increasing female monopolisation efficiency (in particular with highly valuable females) and helping males to respond to rank take-over challenges. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

【 授权许可】

Free