ArticleeLife2022
Transition to siblinghood causes a substantial and long-lasting increase in urinary cortisol levels in wild bonobos.
Article in eLife, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Great Ape Childhoods: Social and Spatial Pathways to Independence in Bonobo and Chimpanzee Infants.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Neopterin as a Tool for Primate Ecoimmunology: Current Knowledge, Practical Application, and New Directions From Captivity to the Wild.American journal of primatology · 2025Review
- Comparison of age-related inflammation and oxidative stress in two lemur species.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2025Article
- Cofeeding at rich clumped food patches in free-ranging dogs: social tolerance or scramble competition?Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2025Article
- Wild bonobos experience unusually low bone resorption during early lactation relative to humans and other mammals.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Sex, season, age and status influence urinary steroid hormone profiles in an extremely polygynous neotropical bat.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- An early-life challenge: becoming an older sibling in wild mandrills.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Modulation of cell-mediated immunity during pregnancy in wild bonobos.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Article
- Bonobo mothers have elevated urinary cortisol levels during early but not mid or late lactation.Primates; journal of primatology · 2023Article
- Life history impacts on infancy and the evolution of human social cognition.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Emotional and Behavioral Changes in Preschool Firstborn Children During Transition to Siblinghood: A Mixed Methods Study.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In animals with slow ontogeny and long-term maternal investment, immatures are likely to experience the birth of a younger sibling before reaching maturity. In these species, the birth of a sibling marks a major event in an offspring's early life as the older siblings experience a decrease in maternal support. The transition to siblinghood (TTS) is often considered to be stressful for the older offspring, but physiological evidence is lacking. To explore the TTS in wild bonobos, we investigated physiological changes in urinary cortisol (stress response), neopterin (cell-mediated immunity), and total triiodothyronine (T3, metabolic rate), as well as changes in behaviors that reflect the mother-offspring relationship. Following a sibling's birth, urinary cortisol levels of the older offspring increased fivefold, independent of their age, and remained elevated for 7 months. The cortisol level increase was associated with declining neopterin levels; however, T3 levels and behavioral measures did not change. Our results indicate that the TTS is accompanied by elevated cortisol levels and that this change does not coincide with nutritional weaning and attainment of physical independence. Our results suggest that bonobos and humans experience TTS in similar ways and that this developmental event may have emerged in the last common ancestor.
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