Hormonal responses to aggression vary in different types of agonistic encounters in male tree lizards, Urosaurus ornatus.

Hormonal responses to male-male interactions have been detected in some studies of vertebrates but not others. One hypothesis that may partially explain these discrepancies is that differences in the duration of male-male interactions cause different hormonal responses. In social systems based on dominance-subordinance hierarchies interactions often last longer than if exclusive territories are maintained. Tests of the hypothesis that encounter duration explains discrepancies in hormonal responses would be facilitated by a species that shows elements of both types of social systems, such as species in which males practice alternative reproductive tactics. We compared plasma levels of corticosterone and testosterone in males of the territorial morph of the tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus) subjected either to short (15 min) male-male encounters or to long (7 days) dominance interactions. In the long interactions, dominant males had lower levels of corticosterone than did subordinate males over the first day, but this difference subsequently disappeared. In sharp contrast, winners of short-term encounters had elevated plasma corticosterone levels which peaked the day after the encounter. Thus, males isolated after a short encounter experienced an increase in corticosterone that was apparently inhibited in males who continued interacting with other males. The delayed increase in corticosterone after a short encounter may facilitate metabolic recovery from the encounter, mobilize metabolic substrates useful in subsequent encounters, or may alter subsequent behavior. The response does not appear to be simply recovery from exercise because in a second experiment males exercised for 15 min did not show a similar delayed increase in corticosterone the following day. Testosterone levels were also monitored and did not change in any of these treatments. These results demonstrate that the duration and the outcome of male-male interactions may each independently influence hormone levels.