Table 3.
Environmental factors affecting springbok parasitism and body condition across study areas. Models included factors for the year (drier or wetter) and the season (dry or wet) and area (driest vs wettest; intermediate (main) vs wettest). A positive coefficient (β) for the categorical variables indicates the parasite or condition measure was higher in the wetter of the two categories considered.
| Independent variables |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season (dry vs wet) |
Year (drier vs wetter) |
Area (drier vs wetter) |
Area (main vs wetter) |
Age |
|||||||
| Data type |
β (SE) |
P |
β (SE) |
P |
β (SE) |
P |
β (SE) |
P |
β (SE) |
P | N |
| strongyle prevalence | 3.320 (0.481) |
*** | −0.822 (0.739) |
ns | 0.298 (0.356) |
ns | 0.003 (0.336) |
ns | 0.020 (0.175) |
ns | 524 |
| strongyle intensity | 2.201 (0.132) |
*** | 0.149 (0.095) |
ns | 0.167 (0.111) |
ns | 0.267 (0.104) |
* | −0.026 (0.056) |
ns | 429 |
| Strongyloides prevalence | 4.075 (0.365) |
*** | 0.628 (0.313) |
* | 2.050 (0.352) |
*** | 0.729 (0.327) |
* | 524 | ||
| Strongyloides intensity | 2.882 (0.255) |
*** | 0.035 (0.115) |
ns | 1.754 (0.154) |
*** | 0.672 (0.129) |
*** | 316 | ||
| Eimeria A prevalence | 4.142 (0.364) |
*** | 0.232 (0.360) |
ns | 0.558 (0.349) |
ns | −0.199 (0.336) |
ns | 522 | ||
| Eimeria A intensity | 3.171 (0.326) |
*** | 0.609 (0.168) |
*** | 0.552 (0.209) |
** | −0.379 (0.192) |
* | −0.210 (0.108) |
^ | 334 |
| Eimeria B prevalence | −0.398 (0.365) |
ns | −0.609 (0.364) |
^ | −0.036 (0.379) |
ns | −0.468 (0.331) |
ns | −1.03 (0.156) |
*** | 522 |
| body condition | 0.610 (0.251) |
* | 1.449 (0.248) |
*** | −0.617 (0.247) |
* | 0.016 (0.231) |
ns | 0.823 (0.134) |
*** | 516 |
***
Significance levels are =p≤0.001,
**
=p≤0.01,
*
=p≤0.05,
^
=p≤0.1; ns=non-significant.
Age is added when warranted (see Table 1) to account for age-related variation in parasitism or condition.