Thyroid hormone concentrations in female baboons: Metabolic consequences of living in a highly seasonal environment.

ABSTRACT: How female mammals adapt metabolically in response to environmental variation remains understudied in the wild, because direct measures of metabolic activity are difficult to obtain in wild populations. However, recent advances in the non-invasive measurement of fecal thyroid hormones, triiodothyronine (T3), an important regulator of metabolism, provide an opportunity to understand how female baboons living in the harsh Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya adapt to environmental variability and escape strict reproductive seasonality. Specifically, we assessed how a female's activity budget, diet, and concentrations of fecal T3 metabolites (mT3) changed over the course of the year and between years. We then tested which of several environmental variables (season, rainfall, and temperature)

SUBMITTER: Gesquiere LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11218546 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature