在雄性脊椎动物中,雄激素与生殖密不可分,社会支配地位,和侵略,通常以父权投资或亲社会为代价。睾酮被用来解释等级相关的生殖差异,但是它在状态类中的作用,特别是在下属中,被低估了。最近的证据,特别是一夫一妻制和合作繁殖的物种,表明成人社会互动的更广泛的雄激素介导。我们探索了雄激素在下属身上的作用,合作繁殖物种的男性成员,Meerkat(Suricatasuricatta)。尽管雄性猫鼬没有显示出与等级相关的睾丸激素差异,下属助手很少繁殖。我们阻断了雄激素受体,在野外,通过用抗雄激素治疗下属男性,氟他胺.我们监测雄激素浓度(通过基线血清和时序粪便采样)并记录其组内的行为(通过局部观察)。相对于控件,氟他胺治疗的动物发起的次数更少,接受的高强度攻击更多(咬,威胁,喂养竞争),从事更多的亲社会行为(社会嗅探,梳理,蜷缩),在游戏过程中不那么频繁地发起游戏或承担“主导”角色,在广泛的社会行为中揭示出显著的雄激素效应。相比之下,下属男性的嗅觉和声音交流的保护或警惕以及措施似乎不受氟他胺治疗的影响。因此,男性猫鼬助手中的雄激素与促进生殖行为和攻击行为之间的传统权衡相一致,但要付出归属感的代价。我们的发现,基于野生哺乳动物罕见的内分泌控制,雄激素在成人社会行为中的作用比通常公认的更为普遍,与理解合作系统中的权衡可能相关。
In male vertebrates, androgens are inextricably linked to reproduction, social dominance, and aggression, often at the cost of paternal investment or prosociality. Testosterone is invoked to explain rank-related reproductive differences, but its role within a status class, particularly among subordinates, is underappreciated. Recent evidence, especially for monogamous and cooperatively breeding species, suggests broader androgenic mediation of adult social interaction. We explored the actions of androgens in subordinate, male members of a cooperatively breeding species, the meerkat (Suricata suricatta). Although male meerkats show no rank-related testosterone differences, subordinate helpers rarely reproduce. We blocked androgen receptors, in the field, by treating subordinate males with the antiandrogen, flutamide. We monitored androgen concentrations (via baseline serum and time-sequential fecal sampling) and recorded behavior within their groups (via focal observation). Relative to controls, flutamide-treated animals initiated less and received more high-intensity aggression (biting, threatening, feeding competition), engaged in more prosocial behavior (social sniffing, grooming, huddling), and less frequently initiated play or assumed a \'dominant\' role during play, revealing significant androgenic effects across a broad range of social behavior. By contrast, guarding or vigilance and measures of olfactory and vocal communication in subordinate males appeared unaffected by flutamide treatment. Thus, androgens in male meerkat helpers are aligned with the traditional trade-off between promoting reproductive and aggressive behavior at a cost to affiliation. Our findings, based on rare endocrine manipulation in wild mammals, show a more pervasive role for androgens in adult social behavior than is often recognized, with possible relevance for understanding tradeoffs in cooperative systems.