Stress-Levels Measured by Cortisol Expression in Captive Chimpanzees, Trends between Gender and Age, and Research Gaps: A Systematic Review

Information in this dataset corresponds to a systematic review on the stress-levels of chimpanzees living in captivity, quantified by cortisol expression. Literature taken into account was published between 1980 and November 2015, and obtained from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). The keywords used were: “Chimpanzee”, “Cortisol”, and “Stress”, which were all separate search queries. The search generated 366 results, and then evaluated on their significance. The literature was refined further by only incorporating studies that included the examination of captive chimpanzees. Studies that described the methods in which cortisol was extracted, as well as the specificity of the gender and age groups analyzed, were criteria for inclusion. Reviews such as systematic reviews and meta-analysis were excluded. Papers that followed this criteria were selected and data was obtained on the 1) geographical location of the study; 2) the method in which cortisol was extracted; 3) the number of male and female chimpanzees analyzed in the study; 4) the number of adult, child, and elder chimpanzees analyzed in the study and lastly, 5) The theories that were tested. The way in which physiological and behavioural theories were applied experimentally are highlighted, as well as the research gaps.