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Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions / CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN

Swansea University Author: CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.59827

Abstract

Animals’ social environments impact their health and survival, but the proximate links between sociality and fitness are still not fully understood. In this thesis, I develop and apply new approaches to address an outstanding question within this sociality-fitness link: does grooming (a widely studi...

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Published: Swansea 2022
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Fürtbauer, Ines ; King, Andrew J. ; O’Riain, Justin M.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59827
first_indexed 2022-04-14T10:43:37Z
last_indexed 2022-04-15T03:31:24Z
id cronfa59827
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2022-04-14T13:05:42.1968134 v2 59827 2022-04-14 Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions 5430d9348343e486bd5b2586b4ef7dd7 CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN true false 2022-04-14 Animals’ social environments impact their health and survival, but the proximate links between sociality and fitness are still not fully understood. In this thesis, I develop and apply new approaches to address an outstanding question within this sociality-fitness link: does grooming (a widely studied, positive social interaction) directly affect glucocorticoid concentrations (GCs; a group of steroid hormones indicating physiological stress) in a wild primate? To date, negative, long-term correlations between grooming and GCs have been found, but the logistical difficulties of studying proximate mechanisms in the wild leave knowledge gaps regarding the short-term, causal mechanisms that underpin this relationship. New technologies, such as collar-mounted tri-axial accelerometers, can provide the continuous behavioural data required to match grooming to non-invasive GC measures (Chapter 1). Using Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) living on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa as a model system, I identify giving and receiving grooming using tri-axial accelerometers and supervised machine learning methods, with high overall accuracy (~80%) (Chapter 2). I then test what socio-ecological variables predict variation in faecal and urinary GCs (fGCs and uGCs) (Chapter 3). Shorter and rainy days are associated with higher fGCs and uGCs, respectively, suggesting that environmental conditions may impose stressors in the form of temporal bottlenecks. Indeed, I find that short days and days with more rain-hours are associated with reduced giving grooming (Chapter 4), and that this reduction is characterised by fewer and shorter grooming bouts. Finally, I test whether grooming predicts GCs, and find that while there is a long-term negative correlation between grooming and GCs, grooming in the short-term, in particular giving grooming, is associated with higher fGCs and uGCs (Chapter 5). I end with a discussion on how the new tools I applied have enabled me to advance our understanding of sociality and stress in primate social systems (Chapter 6). E-Thesis Swansea chacma baboons, grooming, behaviour, endocrinology, glucocorticoids, tri-axial accelerometer, machine-learning 12 4 2022 2022-04-12 10.23889/SUthesis.59827 A selection of third party content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis due to copyright restrictions.ORCiD identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7697-9903 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Fürtbauer, Ines ; King, Andrew J. ; O’Riain, Justin M. Doctoral Ph.D Swansea University PhD Scholarship 2022-04-14T13:05:42.1968134 2022-04-14T11:36:27.7706606 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN 1 59827__23860__aad9467a683e405ab07e8c2569a712a2.pdf Christensen_Charlotte_PhD_Thesis_Final_Redacted.pdf 2022-04-14T13:03:13.5874062 Output 14455972 application/pdf Redacted version - open access true Copyright: The author, Charlotte Christensen, 2022. true eng
title Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
spellingShingle Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN
title_short Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
title_full Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
title_fullStr Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
title_full_unstemmed Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
title_sort Socio-endocrinology revisited: New tools to tackle old questions
author_id_str_mv 5430d9348343e486bd5b2586b4ef7dd7
author_id_fullname_str_mv 5430d9348343e486bd5b2586b4ef7dd7_***_CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN
author CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN
author2 CHARLOTTE CHRISTENSEN
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publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.59827
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description Animals’ social environments impact their health and survival, but the proximate links between sociality and fitness are still not fully understood. In this thesis, I develop and apply new approaches to address an outstanding question within this sociality-fitness link: does grooming (a widely studied, positive social interaction) directly affect glucocorticoid concentrations (GCs; a group of steroid hormones indicating physiological stress) in a wild primate? To date, negative, long-term correlations between grooming and GCs have been found, but the logistical difficulties of studying proximate mechanisms in the wild leave knowledge gaps regarding the short-term, causal mechanisms that underpin this relationship. New technologies, such as collar-mounted tri-axial accelerometers, can provide the continuous behavioural data required to match grooming to non-invasive GC measures (Chapter 1). Using Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) living on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa as a model system, I identify giving and receiving grooming using tri-axial accelerometers and supervised machine learning methods, with high overall accuracy (~80%) (Chapter 2). I then test what socio-ecological variables predict variation in faecal and urinary GCs (fGCs and uGCs) (Chapter 3). Shorter and rainy days are associated with higher fGCs and uGCs, respectively, suggesting that environmental conditions may impose stressors in the form of temporal bottlenecks. Indeed, I find that short days and days with more rain-hours are associated with reduced giving grooming (Chapter 4), and that this reduction is characterised by fewer and shorter grooming bouts. Finally, I test whether grooming predicts GCs, and find that while there is a long-term negative correlation between grooming and GCs, grooming in the short-term, in particular giving grooming, is associated with higher fGCs and uGCs (Chapter 5). I end with a discussion on how the new tools I applied have enabled me to advance our understanding of sociality and stress in primate social systems (Chapter 6).
published_date 2022-04-12T11:37:56Z
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score 11.105427

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