10.5061/DRYAD.M8Q88
Smyth, Kendra N.
Duke University
Greene, Lydia K.
Duke University
Clutton-Brock, Tim
University of Cambridge
Drea, Christine M.
Duke University
Data from: Androgens predict parasitism in female meerkats: a new
perspective on a classic trade-off
Dryad
dataset
2016
Suricata suricatta
Androgens
Testosterone
mammal
ecological immunology
health
masculinisation
helminth
Meerkats
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
IOS-3331264
2016-09-15T13:31:33Z
2016-09-15T13:31:33Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0660
3170 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The immunocompetence handicap hypothesis posits that androgens in males
can be a ‘double-edged sword’, actively promoting reproductive success,
while also negatively impacting health. Because there can be both
substantial androgen concentrations in females and significant androgenic
variation among them, particularly in species portraying female social
dominance over males or intense female–female competition, androgens might
also play a role in mediating female health and fitness. We examined this
hypothesis in the meerkat (Suricata suricatta), a cooperatively breeding,
social carnivoran characterized by aggressively mediated female social
dominance and extreme rank-related reproductive skew. Dominant females
also have greater androgen concentrations and harbour greater parasite
loads than their subordinate counterparts, but the relationship between
concurrent androgen concentrations and parasite burdens is unknown. We
found that a female's faecal androgen concentrations reliably
predicted her concurrent state of endoparasitism irrespective of her
social status: parasite species richness and infection by Spirurida
nematodes, Oxynema suricattae, Pseudandrya suricattae and coccidia were
greater with greater androgen concentrations. Based on gastrointestinal
parasite burdens, females appear to experience the same trade-off in the
costs and benefits of raised androgens as do the males of many species.
This trade-off presumably represents a health cost of sexual selection
operating in females.
Dataset
Kalahari Desert
South Africa