Meeting Abstract
In cooperative breeders, socially subordinate individuals generally do not breed and instead contribute to several pro-social (or “helping”) behaviors that benefit the offspring produce by the dominant breeding pair. Some subordinates consistently do more helping behavior than others regardless of their age, body condition, or other factors. The proximate causes of this variation in pro-social behavior are relatively unknown. We are investigating the developmental and physiological causes of such inter-individual variation in helping behavior in Kalahari meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Meerkats are a cooperatively breeding species and both female and male subordinates exhibit several helping behaviors. Subordinate meerkats will take care of and feed the offspring produced by the dominant breeding pair even though they may not even be related to them. Previous studies in both social and non-social species suggest that elevated glucocorticoid levels may promote self-investment over investment in reproduction, whether it be their own reproduction or investment in the offspring produced by dominants. We performed short-term experimental manipulations of the glucocorticoid levels of female and male subordinate meerkats to determine how they impacted the expression of several cooperative behaviors. We present the results from these experimental manipulations, which emphasize the importance that glucocorticoids play in mediating pro-social behavior.
