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Are faecal hormone levels linked to winter progression, diet quality and social rank in young ungulates ? An experiment with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns

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Abstract

Hormones play a central role in the physiology and behaviour of animals. The recent development of noninvasive techniques has increased information on physical and social states of individuals through hormone measurements. The relationships among hormones, life history traits and behaviours are, however, still poorly known. For the first time, we evaluated natural winter glucocorticoid and testosterone levels in young ungulates in relation to winter progression, diet quality and social rank. Overwinter, levels of glucocorticoid and testosterone decreased, possibly due to the decline of fawns’ body mass. The relationships between hormone levels and diet quality were surprising: Fawns fed the control diet presented higher glucocorticoid and lower testosterone levels then fawns fed the poor diet, suggesting that control fawns faced a higher nutritional stress than those on the poor diet. Similarly to other studies on social mammals, we found no relationship between faecal glucocorticoid levels and social rank, suggesting that social stress was similar for dominant and subordinate fawns during winter. Testosterone levels were not correlated to social rank as found previously in groups of individuals forming stable social hierarchies and maintaining stable dominance relationships. The simultaneous suppression of glucocorticoid and testosterone levels suggests for the first time that young ungulates present a hormonal strategy to prevent fast depletion of limited proteins and fat resources during winter.

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Acknowledgments

We thank A. Tousignant, D. Duteau and D. Sauvé for assistance with data collection, maintenance of the enclosure and companionship in the field. We are grateful to L. Breton, M.-L. Coulombe, F. Fournier, A. Massé, G. Picard, A. Simard and J.-P. Tremblay for help with deer captures. We also thank S. De Bellefeuille, S. Hamel, and R. B.Weladji for discussions and valuable comments and insights on draft versions of the manuscript. Corticosterone RIA and determination of testosterone metabolite concentrations were performed at York University by the staff of the Reproductive Physiology Department of the Toronto Zoo (C. Gilman, S. Hayden, T. Keeley, K. Lockyear and R. Spindler). This study was funded by a grant from the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT) to S. D. Côté, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)–Produits forestiers Anticosti Research Chair and the Centre d’études nordiques (CEN). The Laval University Animal Care and Use Committee approved all procedures (reference number 2001-275).

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  1. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada–Produits forestiers Anticosti Industrial Research Chair, Université Laval, Département de biologie and Centre d’études nordiques, Québec, Quebec, G1K 7P4, Canada

    Joëlle Taillon & Steeve D. Côté

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  1. Joëlle Taillon
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Correspondence to Steeve D. Côté.

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Taillon, J., Côté, S.D. Are faecal hormone levels linked to winter progression, diet quality and social rank in young ungulates ? An experiment with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 1591–1600 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0588-2

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