Corticosterone-implanted chicks transmit stress to parents and neighbors in a colonial seabird.

ABSTRACT: In animals living in groups, stress-induced changes in behavior can be a source of social information, and stressed individuals can potentially become stressors for other social partners, with important consequences for social and population dynamics. Here, we studied stress transmission from experimentally stressed chicks to both their parents and neighbors in the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis), a seabird that forms large breeding colonies. To do this, we experimentally increased the level of a stress hormone by corticosterone implant in 2 first-hatched chicks of the brood and observed its effects on their parents and both adults and chicks in the neighboring nests. Two days after the implant, corticosterone-implanted chicks showed reduced basal corticosterone levels, proba

SUBMITTER: Cortes-Manzaneque S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12449063 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature