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.

尽管已知人为污染物会对灵长类动物构成威胁，但当前学界对灵长类动物的原位污染物暴露及其亚致死效应的认知仍较为有限。本研究采用非侵入式生物监测（noninvasive biomonitoring）方法，对栖息于乌干达基巴莱国家公园（Kibale National Park）的4种灵长类动物展开分析，探究其粪便中97种化学污染物的浓度与粪便中皮质醇（cortisol）、雌二醇（estradiol）两种激素代谢物之间的关联，所涉物种分别为黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）、橄榄狒狒（Papio anubis）、红疣猴（Piliocolobus tephrosceles）以及红尾猴（Cercopithecus ascanius）。在共计71份的所有物种样本中，本研究结果显示，成年雌性个体的皮质醇水平与有机氯农药（organochlorine pesticides，ß=0.143，p=0.020）、有机磷酸酯（organophosphate esters，ß=0.112，p=0.003）均呈显著正相关；此外，幼年个体的皮质醇水平与有机氯农药（ß=0.192，p=0.013）以及溴化阻燃剂（brominated flame retardants，ß=0.176，p=0.004）同样呈显著正相关。本研究结果表明，累积性农药与阻燃剂会干扰这些灵长类种群的内分泌功能，可能对其生长发育、新陈代谢及繁殖能力产生潜在影响；同时，本研究进一步证实，粪便可作为重要的非侵入式生物样本基质，用于探究野生灵长类动物及其他关键野生动物种群中污染物与激素的关联。