TY - JOUR
T1 - Variation in steroid hormones associated with infant care behaviour and experience in male marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii)
AU - Nunes, Scott
AU - Fite, Jeffrey E.
AU - French, Jeffrey A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Denise Hightower and Danny Revers for their excellent work caring for the marmosets. We are grateful to Dan Jorgensen, Kim Patera and Cory Ross for their invaluable help collecting urine samples and Steve Boykins for his excellent assistance with hormone assays. Katherine Wynne-Edwards and an anonymous referee provided helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant to J.A.F. from the National Science Foundation (IBN 97-23842). The research presented here was described in Animal Research Protocol No. 95-103-07, approved on 21 July 1999 by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Nebraska Medical Center/University of Nebraska, Omaha.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - We describe temporal patterns of change in paternal behaviour and urinary concentrations of the steroid hormones testosterone (T) and oestradiol (E2) in male black tufted-ear marmosets, Callithrix kuhlii, relative to the birth of their young, and test predictions of the hypotheses that (1) high levels of T are incompatible with paternal care and (2) levels of T and E2 vary with a father's prior experience in his family group. After young were born, levels of urinary T and E2 remained near prepartum concentrations and rates at which fathers carried infants were below peak levels until the approximate time that postpartum mating ordinarily occurs, suggesting a possible trade-off between readiness to mate and paternal behaviour in C. kuhlii. Infant-carrying behaviour of fathers occurred at its highest rate 3-4 weeks after parturition and coincided with significant declines in urinary levels of T and E2, providing preliminary support for the hypothesis that these hormones are antagonistic to paternal behaviour. Urinary T and E2 declined among fathers regardless of whether their young survived to weaning or died at birth, indicating that variation in these hormones after parturition occurs even in the absence of continued stimuli from infants. When adjusted for declines ordinarily associated with aging, urinary T tended to be lower among fathers with a great deal of prior experience caring for young compared with fathers having little or no experience, suggesting that either experience affects T levels of fathers, or that T levels influence fathers' chances of successfully rearing infants. Overall, our results suggest that in male C. kuhlii, T, and possibly E2, play an important role in balancing the expression of paternal care with that of other reproductive behaviours.
AB - We describe temporal patterns of change in paternal behaviour and urinary concentrations of the steroid hormones testosterone (T) and oestradiol (E2) in male black tufted-ear marmosets, Callithrix kuhlii, relative to the birth of their young, and test predictions of the hypotheses that (1) high levels of T are incompatible with paternal care and (2) levels of T and E2 vary with a father's prior experience in his family group. After young were born, levels of urinary T and E2 remained near prepartum concentrations and rates at which fathers carried infants were below peak levels until the approximate time that postpartum mating ordinarily occurs, suggesting a possible trade-off between readiness to mate and paternal behaviour in C. kuhlii. Infant-carrying behaviour of fathers occurred at its highest rate 3-4 weeks after parturition and coincided with significant declines in urinary levels of T and E2, providing preliminary support for the hypothesis that these hormones are antagonistic to paternal behaviour. Urinary T and E2 declined among fathers regardless of whether their young survived to weaning or died at birth, indicating that variation in these hormones after parturition occurs even in the absence of continued stimuli from infants. When adjusted for declines ordinarily associated with aging, urinary T tended to be lower among fathers with a great deal of prior experience caring for young compared with fathers having little or no experience, suggesting that either experience affects T levels of fathers, or that T levels influence fathers' chances of successfully rearing infants. Overall, our results suggest that in male C. kuhlii, T, and possibly E2, play an important role in balancing the expression of paternal care with that of other reproductive behaviours.
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U2 - 10.1006/anbe.2000.1524
DO - 10.1006/anbe.2000.1524
M3 - Article
C2 - 11124885
AN - SCOPUS:0034490599
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 60
SP - 857
EP - 865
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
IS - 6
ER -