Work

Life at the Top: Rank and Stress in Wild Male Baboons

Year: 2011

Type: article

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.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.1207120

Authors: Laurence R. Gesquiere, Niki H. Learn, M. Carolina M. Simao, Patrick O. Onyango, Susan C. Alberts, Jeanne Altmann