10.5061/DRYAD.RV15DV475
Hill, Davina
0000-0001-9085-6192
University of Glasgow
Pillay, Neville
0000-0002-0778-726X
University of the Witwatersrand
Schradin, Carsten
University of Strasbourg
Data from: Glucocorticoid levels predict subsequent social tactic in
females of a facultatively social mammal
Dryad
dataset
2020
FOS: Biological sciences
South Africa's National Research Foundation*
75057
Swiss National Science Foundation*
31003A-135770/1
South Africa's National Research Foundation
75057
Swiss National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/00yjd3n13
31003A-135770/1
2020-12-11T00:00:00Z
2020-12-11T00:00:00Z
en
36174 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Facultatively social species, in which individuals can switch between
group- and solitary-living tactics, offer an opportunity to shed light on
proximate mechanisms underlying alternative life histories. Promising
hormonal mediators of social tactic include glucocorticoids, which control
energy allocation and are negatively related to body condition, and
testosterone which regulates numerous social behaviours. Here, we
investigated hormonal profiles associated with social tactic in eight
generations of free-living female striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio).
Females are group living during the non-breeding season but live
solitarily or with female kin in communally-breeding groups during the
breeding season. We tested whether females’ baseline levels of
corticosterone (a glucocorticoid) and testosterone measured during the
breeding season differed before and after females left the group (i.e.
when they switched from a group-living to solitary social tactic), and
whether the hormone levels of females that remained group living differed
before and after their nestmates became solitary. We also asked whether
seasonal variation in hormone levels was associated with social tactic.
During the breeding season, corticosterone levels were lower in solitary
than group-living females both before and after solitary females left the
group, and did not differ in solitary females before and after leaving. In
group-living females, corticosterone was higher after their nestmates
became solitary than before they left. Testosterone levels did not differ
before and after females became solitary and were not associated with
social tactic. Corticosterone was higher during the breeding than the
non-breeding season in group-living females but did not differ between the
seasons in solitary females. Testosterone levels were higher in both
social tactics during the non-breeding season. We conclude that baseline
corticosterone but not testosterone levels are associated with female
social tactic, and that corticosterone levels at the start of the breeding
season, when all females are group living, may be an indicator of
subsequent tactic: solitary females’ corticosterone levels were lower than
those of females that remained group living even before the solitary
phenotype was expressed. Glucocorticoids might therefore play a modulatory
role in social organisation in facultatively social species.
Please refer to the Materials and Methods section of our paper in
Functional Ecology for details of how these data were collected.
Please refer to the README files for general information and column
descriptors: README_Hill_Hormones&SocialTactics
README_Hill_Hormones&PairedSocialTactics