Supplementary materials; Data file used for analyses; Data file used for figure; Code file from 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 situ and their sub-lethal effects is still limited. We used non-invasive biomonitoring to examine associations between faecal concentrations of 97 chemical pollutants and faecal 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 (β = 0.139, p = 0.025) and organophosphate esters (β = 0.115, p = 0.003) with cortisol in adult females. Additionally, we observed positive associations of brominated flame retardants with cortisol (β = 0.141, p = 0.038) and negative associations with estradiol (β = −0.168, p = 0.039) in juveniles. Our results suggest that the accumulation of 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 faeces can be an important, non-invasive matrix for examining pollutant-hormone associations in wild primates and other critical wildlife populations.