Fig 1.
Hypothetical curves for changes in elk flight response distance at different frequencies of aversive conditioning, (top) during the conditioning period, and (bottom) after the conditioning period. Curves illustrate: (I) a linear response where flight distance increases at constant rate with increasing conditioning frequency, or threshold responses whereby flight distance increases rapidly after a threshold is reached at conditioning frequencies that are (II) low, (III), moderate, or (IV) high. Comparable relationships could occur in the post-conditioning period to illustrate the rate at which flight response distances decline with thresholds (Curves V–VIII) triggered at different conditioning frequencies.
Table 1.
Model structures and variables for each of three different types of analyses of the effects of aversive conditioning frequency, and its subsequent removal, on elk flight response distance or proximity from town as the result of conditioning, and the effect of habituation level (pre-conditioned flight response distance) on changes to flight response effect sizes during and after conditioning.
Fig 2.
(top) Average flight response distances for individual elk in periods before, during, and after a 90 day aversive conditioning period. Low frequency is defined as 3–5 total aversive conditioning treatments, high frequency as 6–9 total treatments. Difference between before and during flight responses is the conditioned change", and difference between during and after flight responses is recidivism. Effect sizes for these behavioural changes, and the overall change from before to after, are shown in the bottom panel of the figure.
Fig 3.
Change in flight response distances for elk exposed to different frequencies of aversive conditioning, contrasting the changes that occurred between before vs. during (conditioned change) and during vs. after (recidivism).
Fig 4.
Effect of habituation, measured as the average flight response distance measured before conditioning (X-axis).
Effect sizes (Y-axis) are for changes in mean flight response distances during aversive conditioning and after conditioning stopped.