Data for: Associations between faecal chemical pollutants and hormones in primates inhabiting Kibale National Park, Uganda

While anthropogenic pollutants are known to be a threat to primates, our
understanding of exposure to pollutants in situand their sub-lethal
effects is still limited. We used noninvasive biomonitoring to examine
associations between fecal concentrations of 97 chemical pollutants and
fecal hormone metabolites of cortisol and estradiol in four primate
species inhabiting Kibale National Park, Uganda (chimpanzees - Pan
troglodytes, olive baboons - Papio anubis, red colobus - Piliocolobus
tephrosceles, and red-tailed monkeys - Cercopithecus ascanius). Across all
species (n = 71 samples), our results demonstrated positive associations
of organochlorine pesticides (ß = 0.143, p = 0.020) and organophosphate
esters (ß = 0.112, p = 0.003) with cortisol in adult females.
Additionally, we observed positive associations of organochlorine
pesticides (ß = 0.192, p = 0.013) and brominated flame retardants
(ß  = 0.176, p = 0.004) with cortisol in juveniles. Our results
suggest that cumulative pesticides and flame retardants are disruptive to
endocrine function in these populations, which could have implications for
development, metabolism, and reproduction. Our results further demonstrate
that feces can be an important, noninvasive matrix for examining
pollutant-hormone associations in wild primates and other critical
wildlife populations.