Fig 3. Constitutive immune responses and nutritional condition in pregnant and lactating North American elk.

Estimated means (± s.e.) of (A) nutritional condition as indicated by maximal subcutaneous fat, (B) bacteria killing ability, and (C) hermolytic-complement activity by pregnancy status and (D) nutritional condition, (E) bacteria killing ability, and (F) hemolytic complement activity by lactation status for North American elk on the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range, 2012–2013. Pregnant elk were in higher nutritional condition than non-pregnant elk, but they did not differ in bacteria killing ability or higher hemolytic-complement activity. Lactating elk were in lower-nutritional condition than non-lactating elk, but did no differ in bacteria killing ability or hemolytic complement activity. Different letters indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) of pairwise comparisons following analysis of variance.