Do Social Interactions Decrease Basal Stress Levels In Breeding Female Yellow-Bellied Marmots?

Abstract

In order for sociality to exist, the benefits must outweigh the costs. Benefits include better territorial defense, co-operative foraging, and predator avoidance. Costs include increased disease transmission, intraspecific competition for resources or mates, and reproductive suppression. One way to examine the costs and benefits of group living is to assess the impact of social stressors on basal glucocorticoid (GC) levels. In certain species, social interactions such as grooming have been shown to decrease basal GC levels. Since elevated levels of GC have been shown to increase mortality and decrease reproductive rates, decreased stress levels could be a benefit of social living. We investigated whether social interactions decreased stress levels in breeding female yellow-bellied marmots. We found that relationship strength, not the number of relationships, decreased stress levels in females both before and soon after their litter emergence, supporting our hypothesis that decreased basal stress levels can be a benefit of social group living.

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