Stress hormones and mate choice

A few recent studies have suggested that glucocorticoid stress hormones can play a role in sexual selection. In terms of mate choice, these studies have shown that individuals can exhibit preferences for mates with either low baseline or peak glucocorticoid levels. This appears to occur because stre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2008-10, Vol.23 (10), p.532-534
Main Authors: Husak, Jerry F., Moore, Ignacio T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Female
Glucocorticoids - blood
Male
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
Stress, Physiological - physiology
Vertebrates - physiology
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Summary:A few recent studies have suggested that glucocorticoid stress hormones can play a role in sexual selection. In terms of mate choice, these studies have shown that individuals can exhibit preferences for mates with either low baseline or peak glucocorticoid levels. This appears to occur because stress hormones can be key mediators of many condition-dependent, sexually selected traits that serve as honest signals of mate quality. We suggest that our understanding of how sexual selection can influence the glucocorticoid stress response will be expanded by studying the interactions among glucocorticoid stress hormones, sex steroids and body condition.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2008.06.007