Tessa Steiniche, Steffen Foerster, Kurt E White, Steven Monfort, Janine L Brown, Shahrina Chowdhury, Larissa Swedell
Hormones and behavior 2023 JunMating related behavior during ovarian cycling can be energetically demanding and constitute a significant stressor, requiring physiological responses to mediate investment in reproduction. To better understand the proximate mechanisms underlying these responses, we examine hormonal and behavioral variation across the ovarian cycle during conceptive and nonconceptive cycles in wild female chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). We quantified immunoreactive fecal estradiol, progesterone, and cortisol metabolites for 21 adult females, and calculated activity budgets and rates of received aggression from over 5000 15-min behavioral samples. We found conception to be associated with higher concentrations of both estradiol and cortisol during the follicular phase, but no difference in progesterone between conceptive and nonconceptive cycles for either the follicular or luteal phase. While females spent less time feeding during the follicular compared to the luteal phase, we found no difference in time spent feeding, moving, or copulating between conceptive and nonconceptive cycles of the same phase. Rates of received aggression also were similar across the ovarian cycle, with no difference between conceptive and nonconceptive cycles. Finally, we found positive associations between cortisol and estradiol, indicating that glucocorticoids (GCs) do not suppress hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) activity and reproductive function in this context. Overall, our results suggest that elevated GCs may play an adaptive role in mobilizing energy during sexually receptive periods of ovarian cycling. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Tessa Steiniche, Steffen Foerster, Kurt E White, Steven Monfort, Janine L Brown, Shahrina Chowdhury, Larissa Swedell. Elevated glucocorticoids during the ovarian follicular phase predict conception in wild female chacma baboons. Hormones and behavior. 2023 Jun;152:105354
PMID: 37079971
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