Stress and parental care: Prolactin responses to acute stress throughout the breeding cycle in a long-lived bird

Abstract

While the role of corticosterone in mediating the response of birds to acute stress is well established, it has recently been proposed that a decrease in prolactin levels following stress may complement corticosterone in redirecting resources away from breeding activities and towards behaviors promoting immediate survival. Here, for the first time, we detail changes in the prolactin stress response of birds throughout the breeding cycle. We then discuss the modulation of the corticosterone and prolactin stress responses over successive stages of breeding, differing in reproductive value and parental effort. In a long-lived Procellariiform seabird, the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus, we found that prolactin levels decreased in response to acute stress during incubation and mid chick-rearing but increased in response to stress during late chick-rearing and in non parenting birds, a pattern similar to that previously described for mammals. The high corticosterone stress response in pre-breeders was consistent with predictions based on reproductive value, but a similar response during late chick-rearing was not. This probably reflected foraging effort and a heightened importance of the parents' own nutritional status at this stage of the season, in advance of post-breeding migration. We also found that baseline prolactin levels were maintained at high levels during chick-rearing and were only slightly lower during late chick-rearing and in failed breeders and non-breeders. These data suggest that prolactin may play a role in nestling care long beyond the brooding phase, that this is not due to birds spending long periods away from the colony and that prolactin secretion may be necessary for nest-guarding behavior.