Fig 1. Constitutive immune responses and nutritional condition differed in North American elk maintained at different population densities.

Estimated mean (± s.e.) (A) nutritional condition as indicated by maximal subcutaneous fat, (B) bacteria killing ability, and (C) hemolytic-complement activity by density for North American elk on the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range 2012–2013. Elk from the low-density population had higher bacteria killing ability, higher hemolytic-complement activity, and lower nutritional condition than elk from the high-density population. Population densities were relative to ecological carrying capacity. Different letters indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) of pairwise comparisons following analysis of variance.