Table 5. Results of selection and averaged fixed-effects coefficients of mixed-models exploring the effect of territorial stability, mortality rate, dispersal rate, and month on fecal cortisol metabolites levels in three wolf packs from Yellowstone National Park (USA), 2007–2009.

Only candidate models with ΔAICc < 10 are shown. We used candidate models with ΔAICc < 2 (bold face) for model coefficient averaging.

Model parameters a	k	log likelihood	AICc	ΔAICc	w
month + mortality rate + territorial stability	9	-625.3	1269.7	0	0.26
month + dispersal rate + mortality rate	9	-625.4	1270.0	0.27	0.23
month + mortality rate	8	-626.6	1270.1	0.35	0.22
month + dispersal rate + mortality rate + territorial stability	10	-625.2	1271.8	2.14	0.09
month	7	-628.6	1271.9	2.17	0.09
month + territorial stability	8	-628.1	1273.2	3.46	0.05
month + dispersal rate	8	-628.3	1273.6	3.89	0.04
month + dispersal rate + territorial stability	9	-627.5	1274.1	4.40	0.03
dispersal rate + mortality rate	6	-633.2	1279.0	9.32	0.00
mortality rate + territorial stability	6	-633.4	1279.2	9.54	0.00
			95% confidence interval
Fixed-effect parameters	averaged β	SE	lower	upper
(intercept)	12.0	1.9	8.3	15.8
territorial instability b	1.1	1.8	-2.4	4.6
mortality rate *	29.1	12.0	5.5	52.8
dispersal rate	3.7	6.9	-9.8	17.3
December c *	-7.4	2.3	-11.9	-2.9
February c *	-7.6	2.2	-11.9	-3.3
March c *	-8.4	3.5	-15.4	-1.5

k: number of estimable parameters; AICc: Akaike Information Criteria adjusted for small sample sizes; ΔAICc = (AICc)–(AICc)_min; w: Akaike weight;

* parameter deemed significant as confidence interval excludes zero.

^a All models were fitted with a random intercept for pack identity and a random intercept for winter of sample collection.

^b Reference category was territorial stability.

^c Reference category was January.