Alpha male baboons undergo enormous stress in order to monopolize females
A study of wild baboons found that alpha males are more stressed and expend more energy than other males, providing a deeper understanding of the stress that high-status animals may experience.
Energetic costs of social dominance in wild male baboons | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Being a Ladies' Man Comes at a Price for Alpha Male Baboons | Duke Today
https://today.duke.edu/2025/01/being-ladies-man-comes-price-alpha-male-baboons
Alpha Male Baboons Have High Stress and Shorter Lives — And It's All for Love
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/alpha-male-baboons-have-high-stress-and-shorter-lives-and-its-all-for-love/
Previous research on captive primates has shown that individuals with lower social status have higher concentrations of the adrenal cortex hormone glucocorticoid , which has led to speculation that such individuals are more susceptible to stress because they are unable to predict events that may occur in their daily lives.
During stress, the brain releases glucocorticoids and other hormones that mobilize energy and help the body cope with difficult situations, like when you're running late for an appointment or facing a stressful meeting with your boss.
While lower-status animals in captivity were more susceptible to stress, higher-status animals in the wild had higher glucocorticoid levels, contradicting the hypothesis that higher-status animals should be expected to be less stressed.
Taking note of this, Lawrence Geskeel of Duke University and his colleagues combined the results of fecal analysis of wild male baboons with 14 years of behavioral records from 204 male baboons to investigate what causes stress in high-status males.
The results showed that the glucocorticoid levels of the dominant 'alpha males' were 6% higher than those of other males.
Furthermore, behavioral analysis revealed a surprising source of stress for alpha males. Initially, it was hypothesized that alpha males were stressed because they were constantly fighting other males, but it turns out that this behavior isn't particularly stressful. Instead, Geskeel and his team discovered that the source of energy for alpha male baboons is their mates.
According to Geskeel and his team, the stress hormones of alpha males were directly correlated with the time they spent monopolizing fertile females, and blocking other males' access was what made them feel stressed. They also found that alpha males burned more calories than they took in, suggesting that they were not only stressed but also physically exhausted.
Alpha male baboons, who dominate the group, have the habit of closely watching females during breeding season and stalking them for days to ensure they can produce offspring in order to protect their mating rights. This requires constant vigilance, and the alpha male often has to interrupt his own meals to follow the female whenever she gets up and goes somewhere.
In contrast, alpha males experienced very little stress when fighting other males, which is thought to be because once an alpha male was in charge, he could intimidate other males by simply frowning or showing his fangs.
'Our hierarchies are much more complex, so the results in baboons cannot be directly applied to humans, but for baboons at least, maintaining a high rank would undoubtedly have long-term stressful effects,' said Geskeel.
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