Meeting Abstract

22.3  Saturday, Jan. 4 14:00  Social rank predicts telomere length in female spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) LEWIN, NS*; TREIDEL, LM; PLACE, NJ; HOLEKAMP, KE; HAUSSMANN, MF; Michigan State University lewinnor@msu.edu

The social environment plays an important role in shaping developmental trajectories, but we have little understanding of whether or how these effects express themselves later in life. While social stress accelerates telomere erosion in humans, no research to date has explored this in free-living animal populations. Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are long-lived gregarious carnivores that live in groups, called clans, in which dominance rank confers priority of access to resources and predicts growth, reproductive success, and sociality. The dominance hierarchy is maintained by aggressive behavior such that low-ranking animals receive the most attacks and may experience greater social stress. Here, we investigated telomere length among adult females in a population of closely-studied, free-ranging spotted hyenas using the telomere restriction fragment (TRF) assay. High-ranking females exhibited significantly longer mean TRF lengths than either low-ranking females or immigrant males. Although the mediating mechanisms are unknown in hyenas, current hypotheses suggesting oxidative stress and social buffering offer exciting avenues for future research. This work offers an unprecedented look at telomere dynamics in a wild long-lived mammal, and seeks to explore the contribution of social behavior to aging in a non-primate model.