Is telomere length dependent of gender, age or stress status in the Andean Condor?

Sexual dimorphism has long caught the attention of evolutionary ecologists. Recently, they have paid attention in the causes of differences in telomere length (TL) between sexes. In birds, few studies have been conducted in which differences between sexes have been observed in dimorphic species and which have shown opposite results. So, with the aim of increase our understanding on TL in dimorphic species, we quantify TL of males and females in a highly dimorphic species, the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus). Secondly, we evaluated the factors, most likely influence TL, like age and oxidative stress status. We observed that TL is non-sex or age-biased in the Andean condor. None of the factors associated with stress status (CORT levels and/or oxidative stress) influenced TL. Additionally, our study did not find any relationship between oxidative stress and age, nor gender, excepting for the corticosterone that were significantly and negative correlated with age, showing that younger individuals are more susceptible to stress than adults. Otherwise, our study showed that at higher levels of antioxidant capacity, individuals tended to present lower levels of pro-oxidants. Finally, we suggest that corticosterone do not affect TL directly or indirectly via oxidative stress and that antioxidant total capacity may act as a protective mechanism in Andean condors regardless of age or gender. Although the results suggest a weak association between oxidative stress and TL, other factors or mechanisms could affect TL, especially telomerase activity.