Table 4. List of competing models explaining variation in juvenile Houston Toad growth.

Linear mixed-effects models were fit to repeated measures of Snout Urostyle Length of juvenile Houston Toads (Bufo [=Anaxyrus] houstonensis) maintained in terrestrial exclosures at Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge. These data were collected from March–September, 2015. We examined the effect of RIFA suppression/treatment (i.e., prairies that were treated with insecticide and left untreated), initial/release density (four and six juvenile toads per exclosure), and time (i.e., week) on variation on SUL. We observed three models that had similar (Δ AIC_c ≤ 2) explanatory power with juvenile Houston Toad growth data. We report results from the model with the lowest AIC_c score which specified a higher order interaction of release density and time.

Model	K	AICc	ΔAICc
SUL∼Density*Week+(Week—Exclosure/IndID)	11	5860.03	0.00
SUL∼Week+(Week—Exclosure/IndID)	9	5,860.964	0.934
SUL∼Treatment+Density*Week+ (Week—Exclosure/IndID)	12	5,861.989	1.959a

Notes.

^aK, Number of parameters; IndID, Individual ID of toad within an exclosure.