Glucocorticoid hormones, such as corticosterone, are crucial in regulating daily life metabolism and energy expenditure, as well as promoting short‐term physiological and behavioural responses to unpredictable environmental challenges. Therefore, glucocorticoids are considered to mediate trade‐offs between survival and reproduction. Relatively little is known about how selection has shaped glucocorticoid levels. We used 15 years of capture–recapture and dead recovery data combined with 13 years of corticosterone and breeding success data taken on breeding barn owls (Tyto alba) to investigate such trade‐offs. We found that survival was positively correlated with stress‐induced corticosterone levels in both sexes, whereas annual and lifetime reproductive success (i.e. the sum of young successfully fledged during the entire reproductive career) was positively correlated with both baseline and stress‐induced corticosterone levels in females only. Our results suggest that, in the barn owl, the stress‐induced corticosterone response is a good proxy for adult survival and lifetime reproductive success. However, selection pressure appears to act differently on corticosterone levels of males and females.

中文翻译：

---

糖皮质激素水平与成年谷仓猫头鹰的终生繁殖成功和存活有关

糖皮质激素，如皮质酮，在调节日常生活代谢和能量消耗以及促进对不可预测的环境挑战的短期生理和行为反应方面至关重要。因此，糖皮质激素被认为可以调节生存和繁殖之间的权衡。关于选择如何影响糖皮质激素水平，我们知之甚少。我们使用了 15 年的捕获-重新捕获和死亡恢复数据，结合 13 年的皮质酮和繁殖仓鸮（Tyto alba）的繁殖成功数据来研究这种权衡。我们发现，生存率与两性压力诱导的皮质酮水平呈正相关，而每年和终生的生殖成功（即 在整个生殖生涯中成功发育的年轻人总数）仅与女性的基线和压力诱导的皮质酮水平呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，在谷仓猫头鹰中，应激诱导的皮质酮反应是成年生存和终生繁殖成功的良好代表。然而，选择压力似乎对男性和女性的皮质酮水平有不同的作用。