Social and reproductive influences on plasma cortisol in female marmoset monkeys

• Published in: Physiology & behavior Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 801 - 810
• Main Authors: Saltzman, Wendy, Schultz-Darken, Nancy J., Scheffler, Guenther, Wegner, Frederick H., Abbott, David H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Elsevier Inc 01.10.1994; New York, NY Elsevier
• Subjects: Aggression; Animals; Anovulation; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Callithrix; Callithrix jacchus; Cortisol; Dominance; Dominance-Subordination; Estrus - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Group formation; Hierarchy, Social; Hormones and behavior; Hydrocortisone - blood; Male; Marmoset; Ovulation; Ovulation - physiology; Progesterone; Progesterone - blood; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reproduction; Reproductive suppression; Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology; Social Environment; Marmoset; Anovulation; Reproduction; Reproductive suppression; Callithrix jacchus; Group formation; Aggression; Dominance; Cortisol; Progesterone; Ovulation; Social group; Glucocorticoid; Ovarian hormone; Social status; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Social behavior; Social dominance; Social interaction; Animal; Adrenal hormone; Primates; Simioidea; Female; Sex steroid hormone; Formation; Mating status; Aggressiveness
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/0031-9384(94)90246-1

Subordinate female common marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus) undergo ovulation suppression and exhibit low plasma cortisol levels compared to the dominant, breeding female. To determine whether this cortisol difference is mediated by the differential reproductive consequences of social status, we monitored plasma progesterone and cortisol in 32 adult female marmosets while they were housed in hetero-sexual pairs, during the first 3 days of heterosexual group formation, and while animals were housed in established social groups. Cortisol levels prior to group formation were significantly higher in females exhibiting cyclic ovulatory activity than in anovulatory females but were not predictive of social status. Subsequently, when animals were housed in established social groups, dominant (cyclic) females had significantly higher cortisol levels than did subordinate (anovulatory) females. Cortisol levels differed between the pre and postgroup formation conditions only in animals that underwent a corresponding onset or termination of ovulatory cyclicity. Cortisol differences between dominant and subordinate female marmosets therefore appear to be associated with differences in reproductive function rather than with social status per se.