Stress hormones and sociality: integrating social and environmental stressors

In cooperatively breeding species, reproductive decisions and breeding roles may be influenced by environmental (food resources) or social factors (reproductive suppression of subordinates by dominants). Studies of glucocorticoid stress hormones in cooperatively breeding species suggest that breeding roles and hormone levels are related to the relative costs of dominance and subordination, which are driven primarily by social interactions. Few studies, however, have considered how environmental factors affect glucocorticoid levels and breeding roles in cooperative breeders, even though environmental stressors modulate seasonal glucocorticoid release and often influence breeding roles. I examined baseline and stress-induced levels of the glucocorticoid corticosterone (CORT) across 4 years in the plural breeding superb starling, Lamprotornis superbus, to determine whether (i) environmental factors (namely rainfall) directly influence breeding roles or (ii) environmental factors influence social interactions, which in turn drive breeding roles. Chronic baseline and maximal stress-induced CORT changed significantly across years as a function of pre-breeding rainfall, but dominant and subordinate individuals responded differently. Pre-breeding rainfall was also correlated directly with breeding roles. The results are most consistent with the hypothesis that environmental conditions influenced the relative costs of dominance and subordination, which in turn affected the degree and intensity of social interactions and ultimately reproductive decisions and breeding roles.