Snub-nosed Monkey(Rhinopithecus roxellanae) is an endemic primates in China,which lives in alpine forests from 1 400-3 000 m altitude.Taking their fresh feces as the material of non-invasive method is regarded as a feasible way to study physiologic state of free-ranging population.This work aims to determine the storing duration of feces kept in ethanol for extracting 3 steroids.The fresh fecal samples of snub-nosed monkey were treated with ethanol(95%),then kept at low temperature(4 ± 1℃) for 0,5,6,7,8,10,20,and 30 d.The fecal testosterone and estradiol of the female were successfully extracted from fecal samples stored within 30 days;while compared with the control samples(stored 0 d),the content of fecal progesterone of the female and fecal testosterone of the male decreased obviously after having been stored for 10 days and 6 days,respectively.The results showed that,the relative content values of fecal steroid can be used in the comparisons between groups as being preserved in the same condition within 30 days,while the effective storing duration for testosterone,estradiol and progesterone in fresh feces are varied.