Early prenatal but not postnatal glucocorticoid exposure is associated with enhanced HPA axis activity into adulthood in a wild primate

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays a dual role in the biology of developmental plasticity in mammals including humans — HPA axis activity not only provides the input for, but is also a target of, offspring developmental plasticity. To investigate the understudied effects of exposure timing, this study quantified maternal HPA axis activity during each half of gestation as well as during early lactation and assessed its effect on offspring HPA axis activity in a cross-sectional sample of infant, juvenile, and adult Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis). To add ecological validity to experimental studies under lab conditions, macaques were studied in the wild. Increased maternal fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels experienced early in gestation, but not postnatal exposure during lactation were associated with increased offspring HPA axis activity from infancy into adulthood. Building on prior findings, this study indicates that significant timing effects not only influe..., The data deposited here are concentrations of glucocorticoid hormone metabolites measured in fecal samples. Mean concentrations across several samples are reported for three different phases of the female reproductive cycle: the first and second half of gestation (early preGC and late preGC respectively) and the first six months of lactation (Post GC). In statistical analyses, these are related to concetrations measured in the offspring that resulted from these reproductuve events. , , # Early prenatal but not postnatal glucocorticoid exposure is associated with enhanced HPA axis activity into adulthood in a wild primate

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7kt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7kt)

The data deposited has been used for analyses for the journal article with the same title published in Proceeding of the Royal Society London B.

Study species: *Macaca assamensis*

Study site: Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand

## Description of the data and file structure

One comma-delimited csv file contains all data that have been used for the analyses in the manuscript.

Columns and contents are a follows:

individual - identifier of the individual monkey the data relate to

sex - binary variable (male or female)

age.cat - nominal data on age category at time of sampling the variable offspringGC. Infant from birth to 12mo of age, juvenile from at least 12mo until the onset of the breeding season a female first gave birth or the onset of the breeding season...