Male-inflicted wounds have opposite effects on hair cortisol for captive male and female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) following new group formation.

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism in body size, aggression, and dispersal patterns may affect the degree to which males and females perceive aggression from either sex as stressful. Whereas male macaques typically disperse to new groups at maturity, thus encountering many unfamiliar individuals of both sexes, females are philopatric, usually only encountering unfamiliar males who transfer into their natal groups. In rare circumstances, however, group fusions can expose both males and females to many novel individuals, which often increases aggression. Here, we use a captive new group formation of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) as a model of social instability during fusions and examine differences in male and female chronic stress responses to male-pattern and female-pattern trauma (i.e., trauma inflict

SUBMITTER: Linden JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7427344 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature