Transition to siblinghood causes substantial and long-lasting physiological stress reactions in wild bonobos

Abstract

In mammals with a slow ontogeny, the birth of a sibling marks a major developmental transition. Behavioral studies suggest that this event is stressful for the older offspring, but physiological evidence for this is lacking, and it remains unknown whether the birth of a sibling is stressful beyond mere weaning stress. Studying transition to siblinghood in wild bonobos, we investigated physiological changes in urinary cortisol (stress response), neopterin (cell-mediated immunity), and total triiodothyronine (metabolic rate), and related them to behavioral changes in mother-infant relationship and feeding (suckling, riding, proximity, body contact, independent foraging). With sibling’s birth, cortisol levels increased fivefold in the older offspring and remained elevated for seven months, independent of age. This was associated with diminished immunity but not with behavioral or metabolic changes. Our results indicate that transition to siblinghood is stressful beyond nutritional and social weaning and suggest that this effect is evolutionary old.