Elevated testosterone, and the larger or more ornamented body it promotes, is energetically expensive, and can eventually wear down an animal’s body. Castrate a male animal and it can live up to 30 percent longer. High-testosterone males thus end up paying a high price for their show of strength and their triumphs, in the form of a higher rate of mortality. It has been said that there is a certain tragic glory to these highly charged males—“The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”
