Table 2.

Mean telomere length of male stonechats (Saxicola ssp.) in relation to breeding region (tropical, temperate) and age class (nestling, first year pre‐breeding, first year breeding, adult breeding)

Factor level	Estimates (differences from the intercept) and 95% credible intervals, (mean telomere length, kpb)	Estimates and 95% credible intervals (mean telomere length, kbp)
Intercept: tropical, nestling	12.5 [11.9, 13.0]	12.5 [11.9, 13.0]
Tropical, first year pre‐breeding	1.3 [0.4, 2.2]	13.8 [12.3, 15.2]
Tropical, first year breeding	−1.8 [−2.6, −1.0]	10.7 [9.3, 12.0]
Tropical, adult breeding	−1.7 [−2.4, −1.1]	10.8 [9.5, 11.9]
Temperate, nestling	0.3 [−0.5, 1.1]	12.8 [11.4, 14.1]
Temperate, first year pre‐breeding	−4.7 [−6.0, −3.5]	9.0 [6.5, 11.6]
Temperate, first year breeding	0.2 [−0.8, 1.2]	10.9 [8.6, 13.5]
Temperate, adult breeding	−0.8 [−1.8, 0.3]	10.0 [7.8, 12.1]

The second column shows the estimated difference from the intercept. In this case the reference level was “tropical nestlings.” The third column shows the mean estimates for each factor level, which were calculated from column 2. As the reference level was “tropical nestlings,” for temperate birds the estimated difference has to be added to the estimate obtained for tropical birds for each age class. When 0 (zero) is not included in the credible intervals there is an effect of this parameter on the dependent variable (shown in bold).