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Historically, Rio Grande wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) density in south‐central Texas has been lower than other regions within the species' Texas range. Within the Oak‐Prairie Wildlife District of Texas, Rio Grande wild turkey harvest regulations are more restrictive for counties in the eastern portion of the district. Due to a perceived increase in turkey density in the eastern portion of the district, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has considered increasing the spring hunting season harvest bag limit. Because estimates of sex‐specific abundance and male harvest rates are not available, estimates of female driven population parameters such and nest success and female survival can be used to support regulatory decision‐making. Therefore, before a regulation change we evaluated survival of radio‐marked female Rio Grande wild turkeys during the breeding season in 4 counties in the Special 1‐Male zone (hereafter 1‐bird zone) and 2 counties in the South zone (hereafter 4‐bird zone). We captured and monitored breeding season survival for 138 females during 2016–2018, of which 51 were in the 4‐bird zone and 87 were in the 1‐bird zone. Breeding season (1 Mar–14 Aug) naive mortality rate was 23% (19/81) of tagged females in the 1‐bird zone and 32% (14/43) in the 4‐bird zone. The best approximating candidate model for breeding season survival indicated variation in daily survival (Sˆ $\hat{S}$) was primarily related to daily distance of individual movements (Sˆ $\hat{S}$ = 0.998 at average daily distance of 2,471 m). Estimated breeding season survival at the mean daily movement distance was 81% for the 167‐day period. Breeding season survival was similar between the 1‐bird and 4‐bird regulatory zone. Based on our results, female breeding season survival does not seem to be a limiting factor within the Oak‐Prairie Wildlife District of Texas for Rio Grande wild turkeys. We suggest that TPWD focus efforts on supporting landowners to enhance conditions more conducive for reproductive success and suggest future efforts focus on collection of harvest and harvest rate data to estimate population size in lieu of continued monitoring of female reproductive or survival parameters for decision processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is among the greatest conservation achievements in North America. However, restoration efforts in east Texas have had limited success, resulting in a fragmented distribution of turkeys across the landscape. Restoration success is largely dependent on the ability of translocated individuals to quickly select habitat patches on the landscape. Information on habitat selection of translocated wild turkeys is important to identify high quality release locations that should reduce the probability of translocation failure. Our objective was to describe selection of landcover types by translocated female wild turkeys in east Texas. During 2016–2017, we translocated 78 GPS‐tagged wild turkeys to Angelina National Forest in east Texas. We quantified third order selection for females during 3 temporal periods—the exploratory phase (days 1–20), the exploitation phase (days 21–80), and within the annual range. During the exploratory phase, females selected shrub‐scrub and open landcover types, as well as linear paths (roads, rights‐of‐way). During the exploitation phase, females selected shrub‐scrub, mixed, and open landcover types, but not linear paths. Overall, wild turkeys translocated into forested landscapes of east Texas selected for early successional and other open landcover types. Prior to translocation attempts in forest‐dominated landscapes, managers should consider ways to increase availability of open landcover types with herbaceous cover for nesting and brood rearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translocation failures are driven by the inability of animals to adapt to abiotic and biotic factors occurring in the new landscape. Translocated animals typically prospect the local landscape post‐release, and the presence of conspecifics positively influences translocation success via reductions in post‐release movements. Extensive efforts to restore eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) to east Texas have yielded mixed results, leading to a low‐density, fragmented population. Therefore, information on space use, movements, and survival of translocated turkeys may improve the success of future translocation efforts. We translocated 78 female and 23 male wild turkeys to Angelina National Forest, TX, USA, during 2016–2017. We monitored translocated turkeys using GPS telemetry and observed an apparent decline in space use and movements at approximately 20 days post‐release for turkeys translocated in 2016. Turkeys translocated in 2016 in the absence of conspecifics maintained larger mean daily core area and home range sizes and moved greater daily distances from the release site and between roosts during days 1–20 compared to days 21–80. Conversely, females translocated in the presence of conspecifics (during 2017) used smaller daily core areas and home range sizes than females in 2016 and moved shorter distances. We modelled survival using Cox proportional hazards models and determined survival declined with greater daily core area size and daily distance travelled during year 1, but the effect of daily distance travelled was not significant in year 2. Our results suggest that translocations to areas with wild turkeys present may be a strategy to minimize movements and improve survival, thereby increasing translocation success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nest site fidelity is a common behavioral trait among birds that can positively influence reproductive success when there is spatial heterogeneity and temporal predictability in nest site quality. Nest site fidelity in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) has received little attention in the literature despite providing a potential link to nesting success. We used data from 32 female wild turkeys across 8 field sites ranging from South Carolina to Texas with 2 consecutive years of nest data to determine if females showed fidelity to nest sites, if distance between nest locations in consecutive years predicted nest success in the second year, and if females showed fidelity to specific areas within home ranges (patches) for nesting. Females tended to nest closer to previously successful nests (median distance = 920 m) than to unsuccessful nests (median distance = 1550 m) in the second year; however, we documented no evidence of fidelity to specific nest sites. There was widespread reuse of prelaying (89.5%) and laying (77.8%) ranges by females between years, indicating some evidence for patch fidelity. The lack of evidence for nest site fidelity may be a result of the temporally dynamic nature of turkey nesting cover and ubiquity of predation risk across the southeastern U.S, which ecological theory predicts would not provide the reproductive benefits of fidelity that hinge on predictability. Fidelity to patches within home ranges may represent an always‐stay approach, which is expected when the cost of dispersing to new breeding areas outweighs potential benefits and may allow females to draw on prior knowledge of areas within their home ranges. Although distance between nests was not a significant predictor of nest success, females that nested successfully in the first year had a probability of 0.63 of successfully nesting in the second year, whereas unsuccessful females had probability of success of 0.08 in the second year. The tracking of individual nesting success across years warrants further research, as our results imply that a disproportionate percentage of reproduction through time may be attributed to a subset of females that are consistently successful, which may have implications for our understanding of reproductive dynamics in low productivity populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental disturbances driven by global climate variability continue to increase in both frequency and intensity. Recent studies on wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) have documented both direct and indirect demographic effects of short‐term, climatically driven events; however, only limited information is available on the effects of extreme environmental disturbance events on turkey demography. Thus, we evaluated space use and movements of eastern wild turkeys (M. g. silvestris; n = 20) and Rio Grande wild turkeys (M. g. intermedia; n = 22) during hurricane events in South Carolina and Texas, respectively. Hurricane Matthew occurred over a 3‐day period in October 2016 impacting ongoing turkey research on the Webb Wildlife Management Area Complex in South Carolina, whereas Hurricane Harvey occurred over a 5‐day period in August 2017 impacting an ongoing 6‐county study region in Texas. We documented 1 and 2 direct mortalities during Hurricanes Matthew and Harvey, respectively. Mean core area size used by turkeys decreased by 75% during both hurricane events. We did not document evidence of changes in roost fidelity or distance between daily roost clusters after either hurricane. We documented direct mortality of 5 and 8% of the study population during Matthew and Harvey, respectively, and turkeys exhibited a gradient of behavioral responses dependent on hurricane intensity and duration. Because hurricanes can produce substantive modifications to areas used by wild turkeys, we suggest that managers consider initiatives to document legacy effects of extreme environmental disturbance events on local wild turkey demographics, including loss of nesting, brooding and roosting sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]