DOI: 10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xp2
title: Data from: Temperature-related differences in hair cortisol among outdoor-housed Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

description: Temperature has a known potential to influence glucocorticoid
 concentrations obtained from fecal samples in nonhuman primates. Studies
 reliant on hair cortisol estimates obtained using samples from outdoor
 subjects, however, may not control for temperature. This omission is
 despite the general utility of hair as a sample matrix with relatively
 longer periods of accrual time. We examined these dynamics in rhesus
 macaques (Macaca mulatta); importantly, this population of rhesus macaques
 exhibits covariation between season and breeding behavior. Thus, we also
 examined temperature relative to contributions of social behavior
 associated with breeding seasons, which may coincide with climatic shifts.
 We utilized 1921 hair samples from 580 subjects across six large
 outdoor‐housed mixed‐sex groups at the California National Primate
 Research Center to quantify the capacity for warmer or cooler outdoor
 temperatures to influence hair cortisol concentrations. We found that
 colder maximum temperature estimates over the days preceding hair sampling
 were associated with elevated hair cortisol concentrations, relative to
 warmer periods. Temperature contributed similarly in a model with a
 reduced data set (1418 samples) which included breeding‐associated social
 behaviors. Consortship behavior was associated with hair cortisol without
 temperature, but was not associated with temperature included. Aggression
 was associated with cortisol, with or without the inclusion of
 temperature. Outdoor temperature is an important confound or covariate to
 account for statistically or via careful study design. Inclusion is
 especially important among research projects reliant on hair cortisol from
 outdoor‐housed primates and spanning multiple seasons.
description: Hair cortisol values sampled from six groups of outdoor-housed
 rhesus macaques.
description: # Data from: Temperature-related differences in hair cortisol among
 outdoor-housed Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta) Alexander J. Pritchard
 1,2*, Rosemary A. Blersch 1,2, Brenda McCowan 1,2, Jessica J. Vandeleest
 1,2 1 California National Primate Research Center, University of
 California Davis, Davis, CA, USA 2 Department of Population Health &
 Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California
 Davis, Davis, CA, USA
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xp2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xp2) ## Description of the data and file structure Data are contained within two *.rds files (Pritchard-et-al_HairCortData.rds; Pritchard-et-al_HairCortData_wBehavior.rds), accessible through the R programming language. Opened within R, these files contain the data necessary for the relevant paper's analyses. **For Pritchard-et-al_HairCortData.rds**, the dataframe contains 8 columns. **animid:** subject animal ID codes, from 1:N, where N is the total number of study subjects. **x:** a numeric row column. **Sex:** subject animal's sex **YOB:** year of birth for the subject animal **Date:** date of sampling event where hair cortisol sample was collected from the subject animal **CORT:** hair cortisol concentration (pg/mg) **Group:** animal social group that the subject ID was resident to **age:** age (years) of subject animal **For Pritchard-et-al_HairCortData_wBehavior.rds**, the dataframe contains 16 columns. The first 8 columns are as described above. After these columns, this dataframe additionally includes: **Aff_Days:** count of affiliation observation days in the relevant behavior period **Con_Giv:** scaled measure of conflict given by the relevant animal, during the behavior period **Con_Rcv:** scaled measure of conflict received by the relevant animal, during the behavior period **Con_Grp:** scaled measure of conflict in the relevant group, during the behavior period **Grm_Giv:** scaled measure of grooming given by the relevant animal, during the behavior period **Con_Rcv:** scaled measure of grooming received by the relevant animal, during the behavior period **Con_Days:** count of conflict observation days in the relevant behavior period **Consorts:** scaled measure of the counts of unique consort dyads within the relevant behavior period ## Sharing/Access information Temperature data need to be obtain from the following source: * Atmospheric Science Program, Land Air and Water Resources, University of California Davis, 2023. Atmospheric Science :: UC Davis Weather & Climate Stations [WWW Document]. URL [https://atm.ucdavis.edu/weather/uc-davis-weather-climate-station/](https://atm.ucdavis.edu/weather/uc-davis-weather-climate-station/) (accessed 4.12.23). * Menne, M.J., Durre, I., Korzeniewski, B., McNeill, S., Thomas, K., Yin, X., Anthony, S., Ray, R., Vose, R.S., Gleason, B.E., Houston, T.G., 2012. Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCN-Daily), Version 3. Station: USC00042294. [https://doi.org/10.7289/V5D21VHZ](https://doi.org/10.7289/V5D21VHZ) ## Code/Software R software was used to complete the analyses. First, we need to append the temperature data from the above sources. Download the relevant temperature file from [https://atm.ucdavis.edu/weather/uc-davis-weather-climate-station/](https://atm.ucdavis.edu/weather/uc-davis-weather-climate-station/) . At time of publication, this file was directly available here: https://apps.atm.ucdavis.edu/wxdata/data/ as "RRTa2m.zip". Then execute Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalysesAppendTemp.R in your local R program. This code will append temperature columns to both of the included dataframes, adding the following columns: **T_max_HL:** maximum temperature (ºC) measure assuming a linear decaying accrual over T_days (see supplementary information of main text). **T_min_HL:** minimum temperature (ºC) measure assuming a linear decaying accrual over T_days (see supplementary information of main text). **T_days:** days over which the temperature measure is aggregated/accrued **T_max_Mn:** maximum temperature measure (ºC) assuming a mean accrual over T_days (see supplementary information of main text). **T_max_Mx:** maximum temperature measure (ºC) assuming the maximum (warmest) value over T_days (see supplementary information of main text). **T_min_Mn:** minimum temperature measure (ºC) assuming a mean accrual over T_days (see supplementary information of main text). **T_min_Mx:** minimum temperature measure (ºC) assuming the minimum (coldest) value over T_days (see supplementary information of main text). Details of analyses are in three *.R files (Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalysesA.R, Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalysesB.R, & Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalyses_wBehaviors.R). Open the first (Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalysesA), which will load in the data file and execute analyses. Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalysesB should be run only after Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalysesA.R. Pritchard-et-al_HairCortAnalyses_wBehaviors.R can run independently. Note that running all analyses will be computationally intensive.