Males Age Faster: Badgers Have Clues?

The key to youth for male badgers is not a special night cream, but living peaceably. Or at least, researchers at the University of Exeter conducting a 35-year study think that badgers' aging patterns when living alongside many male competitors, as reported recently in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, might have findings for people too.

Male badgers in the study age more quickly if they spend their youth fighting and among a high density of other males, according to a release.

Unlike the males, female badgers appeared to be unaffected by the density of other females in the area, indicating that they don't suffer from the effects of competition in the same way as males, according to the release.

"The findings are particularly interesting because males age faster than females in many species, including our own, but we don't really understand why," noted Dr. Andrew Young, co-author of the report, in the release. Our findings suggest that male badgers age faster than females because of the male-male competition that they experience during their lifetimes; males that experience strong competition age more quickly than females, while males that experience little competition do not."

While the scientists are still working on learning the exact causes of the observed aging, their findings provide support for the idea that sex differences in aging result partly from reproductive competition and the stress of living among rivals, according to a release.

For instance, previous studies have shown that male badgers are more likely to have bite wounds, contest matings and have a higher mortality rate than females.

The study is from the University of Exeter and the Animal and Plant Health Agency's long-term field study in Gloucestershire, UK. The resident badger population there has been monitored since the 1970s, according to the release.

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