Elevated testosterone levels and social ranks in female rock hyrax

Lee Koren; Ofer Mokady; Eli Geffen

doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.10.004

Elevated testosterone levels and social ranks in female rock hyrax

Lee Koren, Ofer Mokady, Eli Geffen

Tel Aviv University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

In mammals, males maintain significantly higher testosterone (T, 'the male hormone') levels than females throughout the year and are typically dominant over females. Our study of the cooperatively breeding rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) demonstrated a distinct exception. In most hyrax social groups that we studied, adult females were at the highest social rank within the group and showed higher than or equal T levels to males. To our knowledge, this is the first reported instance of adult female mammals demonstrating higher T levels than adult males. However, although T levels significantly correlated with rank in males, in females such correlations were not detected, suggesting a more complex interplay between behavior and endocrine factors in this species.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	470-477
Number of pages	8
Journal	Hormones and Behavior
Volume	49
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.10.004
State	Published - Apr 2006
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We wish to thank G. Koren, J. Klein, and T. Karaskov from the Motherisk Program in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada for their help with the hair-testing and hormone validations and to the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority for their logistic support and permission to work in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. We also thank A. Hefetz, G. Koren, A. Lotem, B. Sanzenbacher, J. Terkel, Y. Yom-Tov, and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier drafts. This research was supported by The Israeli Academy for Sciences and Humanities.

Funding

We wish to thank G. Koren, J. Klein, and T. Karaskov from the Motherisk Program in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada for their help with the hair-testing and hormone validations and to the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority for their logistic support and permission to work in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. We also thank A. Hefetz, G. Koren, A. Lotem, B. Sanzenbacher, J. Terkel, Y. Yom-Tov, and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier drafts. This research was supported by The Israeli Academy for Sciences and Humanities.

Funders	Funder number
Israeli Academy for Sciences and Humanities

Keywords

Agonistic interactions
Female dominance
Hair-testing
Rock hyrax
Social hierarchy
Testosterone levels

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10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.10.004

Cite this

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title = "Elevated testosterone levels and social ranks in female rock hyrax",

abstract = "In mammals, males maintain significantly higher testosterone (T, 'the male hormone') levels than females throughout the year and are typically dominant over females. Our study of the cooperatively breeding rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) demonstrated a distinct exception. In most hyrax social groups that we studied, adult females were at the highest social rank within the group and showed higher than or equal T levels to males. To our knowledge, this is the first reported instance of adult female mammals demonstrating higher T levels than adult males. However, although T levels significantly correlated with rank in males, in females such correlations were not detected, suggesting a more complex interplay between behavior and endocrine factors in this species.",

keywords = "Agonistic interactions, Female dominance, Hair-testing, Rock hyrax, Social hierarchy, Testosterone levels",

author = "Lee Koren and Ofer Mokady and Eli Geffen",

note = "Funding Information: We wish to thank G. Koren, J. Klein, and T. Karaskov from the Motherisk Program in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Sick Children{\textquoteright}s Hospital in Toronto, Canada for their help with the hair-testing and hormone validations and to the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority for their logistic support and permission to work in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. We also thank A. Hefetz, G. Koren, A. Lotem, B. Sanzenbacher, J. Terkel, Y. Yom-Tov, and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier drafts. This research was supported by The Israeli Academy for Sciences and Humanities. ",

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Elevated testosterone levels and social ranks in female rock hyrax

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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