Bonobo mothers have elevated urinary cortisol levels during early but not mid or late lactation.

ABSTRACT: In mammals, the costs of reproduction are biased towards females. Lactation is particularly energetically expensive, and behavioral and physiological data indicate that maternal effort during lactation induces energetic stress. Another source of stress in females is male aggression directed towards them when they are cycling. Evaluating the costs of reproduction in wild and mobile animals can be a challenging task, and requires detailed information on state-dependent parameters such as hormone levels. Glucocorticoid (GC) levels are indicative of nutritional and social stress, and are widely used to assess the costs of reproduction. We investigated variation in urinary levels of cortisol, the main GC in female bonobos (Pan paniscus), between and within reproductive stages. Female chimpanzee

SUBMITTER: Nurmi NO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10006042 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature