The endocrine stress-response and social status in the wild baboon

Abstract The relationship between social status and the testosterone and cortisol stress responses was studied in male olive baboons living in their natural environment in Kenya. (1) A variety of measures of social status are correlated with each other but are not correlated with aggressiveness or frequency of fighting. (2) Aggressiveness is positively correlated with high testosterone titers. (3) In contrast, copulatory success is not correlated with testosterone titer. Instead, it is associated with the change of testosterone levels with time; successful males increase testosterone titers in response to stress while subordinates show declines. (4) Finally, those same males with high rates of copulation showed the lowest initial cortisol levels but showed relatively faster and greater cortisol elevations following stress.

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