Dipylidium infection

East, Marion L., Kurze, Christoph, Wilhelm, Kerstin, Benhaiem, Sarah & Hofer, Heribert, 2013, Factors influencing Dipylidium sp. infection in a free-ranging social carnivore, the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta), International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 2 (1), pp. 257-265 : 262

3.5. Factors modulating Dipylidium infection in juveniles

The results of the binary logistic regression (log likelihood ratio test, G = 72.24, df = 6, p = 0.00002, Table 2) revealed that the likelihood of infection in juveniles significantly decreased as the number of younger juveniles in the clan increased whereas the likelihood of infection increased with the combined number of adults and older juveniles that visited the den (means: 7.26 ± 0.34 adult females; 2.42 ± 0.21 adult males; 6.5 ± 0.27 older juveniles). In contrast to our prediction, the likelihood of infection was significantly lower during periods of low prey abundance in the clan territory than in periods with medium or high prey abundance ( Fig. 2 ). Inclusion of juvenile age decreased both the AIC and Schwarz’s BIC values but age did not have a significant effect ( Table 2). Infection was not influenced by maternal standardised rank. Inclusion of fGMCs, clan identity or clan size in the model decreased its significance and increased its AIC and Schwarz’s BIC values, resulting in weaker models than the results for that presented in Table 2.

Figures

Fig. 2. The effect of prey abundance in spotted hyaena clan territories on the proportion of juveniles infected with Dipylidium sp.