Hormonal effects of maltreatment in Nazca booby nestlings: Implications for the “cycle of violence”

Non-breeding Nazca booby adults exhibit an unusual and intense social attraction to non-familial conspecific nestlings. Non-parental Adult Visitors (NAVs) seek out and approach unguarded nestlings during daylight hours and display parental, aggressive, and/or sexual behavior. In a striking parallel to the “cycle of violence” of human biology, degree of victimization as a nestling is strongly correlated with frequency of future maltreatment behavior exhibited as an adult. Here, we investigate candidates for permanent organization of this behavior, including immediate and long-term changes in growth and circulating corticosterone and testosterone due to victimization, by protecting some nestlings with portable exclosures that prevented NAV visits and comparing them to controls. During maltreatment episodes, nestlings experience an approximately five-fold increase in corticosterone concentration, and corticosterone remains elevated approximately 2.8-fold until at least the following morning. Our results are consistent with the possibility that repeated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis permanently organizes future adult maltreatment behavior. No effect on growth, acute or chronic changes in testosterone, or chronic corticosterone elevation was detected or appeared to be components of an organizational effect. This unusual behavior presents an opportunity to investigate neural, endocrine, and behavioral organization resulting from early social trauma that may be conserved across vertebrate classes.

Research highlights
► Nestling corticosterone increases during aggressive maltreatment by non-parents.
► Nestling corticosterone remains elevated until at least the following morning.
► Periodic corticosterone surges may organize future adult maltreatment behavior.