ArticleBioPsychoSocial medicine2010
The costs of dominance: testosterone, cortisol and intestinal parasites in wild male chimpanzees.
Article in BioPsychoSocial medicine, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 175 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social status and parasitism in male and female vertebrates: a meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2018Pooled it
- Social status, immune response and parasitism in males: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Pooled it
- Spotlighting zoonotic strongyloidiasis: a semi-systematic review of threadworms within baboons highlights opportunities for human infections.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2026Review
- Amazonian Shuar testosterone levels are related to parasite infection: immunocompetence handicap hypothesis implications.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- Beyond the Alpha: Extra-Pair Paternities and Male Reproductive Success in a Primate Multilevel Society.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Sex differences in health burdens across the lifespan in wild chimpanzees (Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Article
- Temporal dynamics in gastrointestinal helminth infections of sympatric mouse lemur species (International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Article
- Predictors of dominance rank and agonistic interactions in captive Livingstone's fruit bats.Current zoology · 2023Article
- Minimally invasive biomarkers in human and non-human primate evolutionary biology: Tools for understanding variation and adaptation.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Article
- Evaluating noninvasive methods for estimating cestode prevalence in a wild carnivore population.PloS one · 2022Article
- Male Bowhead Whale Reproductive Histories Inferred from Baleen Testosterone and Stable Isotopes.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- High temperatures and human pressures interact to influence mortality in an African carnivore.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Aggression, glucocorticoids, and the chronic costs of status competition for wild male chimpanzees.Hormones and behavior · 2021Article
- Article
- The female effect-how female receptivity influences faecal testosterone metabolite levels, socio-positive behaviour and vocalization in male Southern white rhinoceroses.Conservation physiology · 2021Article
- Social Network Predicts Exposure to Respiratory Infection in a Wild Chimpanzee Group.EcoHealth · 2020Article
- Demography, life-history trade-offs, and the gastrointestinal virome of wild chimpanzees.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Effects ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Ecological, parasitological and individual determinants of plasma neopterin levels in a natural mandrill population.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2020Article
- Dominance rank and the presence of sexually receptive females predict feces-measured body temperature in male chimpanzees.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMale members of primate species that form multi-male groups typically invest considerable effort into attaining and maintaining high dominance rank. Aggressive behaviors are frequently employed to acquire and maintain dominance status, and testosterone has been considered the quintessential physiological moderator of such behaviors. Testosterone can alter both neurological and musculoskeletal functions that may potentiate pre-existing patterns of aggression. However, elevated testosterone levels impose several costs, including increased metabolic rates and immunosuppression. Cortisol also limits immune and reproductive functions.
methodsTo improve understanding of the relationships between dominance rank, hormones and infection status in nonhuman primates, we collected and analyzed 67 fecal samples from 22 wild adult male chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Samples were analyzed for cortisol and testosterone levels as well as intestinal parasite prevalence and richness. 1,700 hours of observation data were used to determine dominance rank of each animal. We hypothesized that dominance rank would be directly associated with fecal testosterone and cortisol levels and intestinal parasite burden.
resultsFecal testosterone (but not cortisol) levels were directly associated with dominance rank, and both testosterone and cortisol were directly associated with intestinal parasite richness (number of unique species recovered). Dominance rank was directly associated with helminth (but not protozoan) parasite richness, so that high ranking animals had higher testosterone levels and greater helminth burden.
conclusionsOne preliminary interpretation is that the antagonist pleiotropic effects of androgens and glucocorticoids place a cost on attaining and maintaining high dominance rank in this species. Because of the costs associated with elevated steroid levels, dominance status may be an honest signal of survivorship against helminth parasites.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.