Not one hormone or another: Aggression differentially affects progesterone and testosterone in a South American ovenbird

Abstract

Behaviors such as territorial interactions among individuals can modulate vertebrate physiology and vice versa. Testosterone has been pointed out as a key hormone that can be rapidly affected by aggressive interactions. However, experimental evidence for such a link is mixed. In addition, behaviors can elicit changes in multiple hormones, which in turn have the potential to synergistically feedback to behavior. For example testosterone and progesterone can act interdependently in modulating male behavior. However, if aggression can affect progesterone levels in males remain unknown and – to the best of our knowledge – no one has yet tackled if and how aggressive behavior simultaneously affects testosterone and progesterone in free-living animals. We addressed these questions by performing simulated territorial intrusion experiments measuring both hormones and their ratio in male rufous horneros (Aves, Furnarius rufus) during the mating and parental care periods. Aggression affected testosterone and progesterone differentially depending on the period of testing: challenged birds had higher levels of progesterone during the mating period and lower levels of testosterone during parental care compared to controls. Challenged individuals had similar progesterone to testosterone ratios during both periods and these ratios were higher than those of control birds. In summary, territorial aggression triggered hormonal pathways differentially depending on the stage of the breeding cycle, but equally altered their ratio independent of it. Our results indicate that multiple related hormones could be playing a role rather than each hormone alone in response to social interactions.