Fagan lab postdoc, Thomas Mueller, discovers that group living causes stress in ravens
Wed, Feb 9, 2011
Many long-lived birds adopt life strategies of group living
at juvenile and sub-adult stages, but the potential energetic cost and stress
associated with these life styles are poorly understood. Thomas Mueller found
that corticosterone concentrations were significantly higher in non-breeding
gregarious ravens than in territorial adults.
Published last month in
Biology Letters, these findings suggest that group living may be more energetically
demanding than maintaining territory, a condition prompting non-breeders to
leave the group.
This research should
inspire studies of the link between hormone levels and selective pressures on gregarious and territorial
strategies in long-lived birds.
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