Acute peaks of testosterone suppress paternal care: evidence from individual hormonal reaction norms.

ABSTRACT: A long-standing tenet of evolutionary endocrinology states that testosterone mediates the life-history trade-off between mating and paternal care. However, the support for a role of testosterone in suppressing paternal care is mixed: implantation studies in birds suggest that high-level testosterone implants suppress paternal care, but circulating levels of testosterone and paternal care are typically not correlated. Because any trade-off in real life must be realized with hormone levels that are within an individual's reaction norm, it is crucial to show that natural changes in the hormone can modulate behaviour. Here, we used GnRH-injections to alter testosterone levels of free-living male black redstarts within each individual's hormonal reaction norm: individuals experiencing a short-t

SUBMITTER: Goymann W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5489727 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature