Social Status and Antler Development in Red Deer

Abstract

Close correlations between social dominance and levels of some hormones modulated mainly by agonistic behavior have been reported in mammals. The hormone changes which accompany agonistic interactions appear to be more dramatic and longer lasting than those associated, for example, with sexual interactions (Harding 1981). Clearly, dominant animals generally have lower pituitary/adrenocortical activities than submissive animals living with them. Thus, the dominant -+position usually based on aggressive behavior often tends to be related to elevated androgen level, while subordinate status seems to be associated with lower androgen secretion and increasing levels of glucocorticoids (Brain 1980; Leshner 1980). Increased chronic ACTH/glucocorticoid production in subordinate animals suppresses androgens (Brain 1980). In Cervidae the evidence for these relationships has been obtained in white-tailed deer (Bubenik, A. & Bubenik, G. 1976b; Forand et al. 1985), red deer (Short 1979), and reindeer (Stokkan et al. 1980).