Winter Use of Agricultural Habitats by Wild Turkeys in Massachusetts

Haegen, W. Matthew Vander; Sayre, Mark W.; Dodge, Wendell E.

doi:10.2307/3801300

Cited by 23 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Large trees may also be important to accommodate large flocks of roosting birds. In contrast, we observed some limited evidence for proximity to buildings in winter, which appears to be associated with resource acquisition because of the importance of supplemental food in winter, and the availability of this resource near buildings via bird feeders or livestock operations (Vander Haegen 1989, Thompson et al 2009, Hill et al 2023. This represents only weak evidence supporting the two strategies hypothesis, where the strategies are predator avoidance and resource acquisition.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

“…Winter survival in Minnesota, has been linked to roost site selection near supplemental food sources, such as waste grain from agricultural activities (Kane et al 2007). Similar results were found in Massachusetts during the winter where flocks restricted their movements by selecting roost sites that were close to pastures and fields spread with manure (Vander Haegen et al 1989). There are few studies looking at roosting selection by eastern wild turkeys near their northern range edge, where thermal stress in winter is more likely to be a limiting factor.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 74%

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Seasonal roost selection of wild turkeys at their northern range edge

Adey,

Baici,

Bowman

2023

Wildlife Biology

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Wild turkeys Meleagris gallopavo are diurnally active birds that spend the dark hours roosting in trees. We tested the hypothesis that multiple benefits exist for roost tree selection by wild turkeys, including thermoregulation, resource acquisition, and protection from predators. We compared 48 roost trees used by eastern wild turkeys M. g. silvestris in Ontario, Canada to 48 non‐roost trees sampled contemporaneously during 2017–2019 to determine roost site selection between seasons. Mean (± SE) roost tree height (21.4 ± 0.8 m) was taller than non‐roost trees (18.2 ± 0.8 m), and roost trees were also larger in diameter at breast height (58.1 ± 5.5 vs 38.7 ± 3.1 cm). Using ibuttons to collect microclimate temperatures at the tree, we found that mean temperature (± SE) of a deciduous roost (14.5 ± 0.1°C) was higher than temperature at either a coniferous roost (13.9 ± 0.1°C) or ambient temperature (13.2 ± 0.1°C) during the summer months. In winter however, we did not find any relationship between temperature and tree type. Roosts were closer to buildings (150.8 ± 26.0 m) in the winter compared to summer and year‐round roosts, and winter roosts were also farther away from crops (395.2 ± 63.7 m) compared to roost sites used year‐round. Summer roosts were closer to roads (143 ± 36.3 m) than the roosts in the winter and roosts used year‐round. Our data suggest that thermoregulation is not the driving force behind roost selection; instead, predator avoidance appears to play the most important role, with some weaker evidence in support of proximity to resources.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Seasonal roost selection of wild turkeys at their northern range edge

Adey,

Baici,

Bowman

2023

Wildlife Biology

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“…However, residential neighborhoods also contain a high density of bird feeders and supplemental feeding is common at many high-traffic birding and outdoor leisure areas in the province (Jones and Reynolds 2008). Today, Wild Turkeys are heavily reliant on supplemental food sources, such as bird feeders and agricultural operations, during the winter in their northern range (Vander Haegen et al 1989, Nguyen et al 2003, Kane et al 2007, Restani et al 2009). As such, in this case, any underlying spatial bias in the dataset resulting from supplemental food sources and uneven sampling may assist in identifying regions that represent high-quality Wild Turkey habitat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, turkeys are a generalist, forest-dependent species (Healy 1992, Porter 1992. Wild Turkeys are also heavily reliant on supplemental food sources, particularly during the winter months when their natural food sources are less available (Vander Haegen et al 1989, Nguyen et al 2003, Kane et al 2007, Restani et al 2009). Thus, we included both forest and agricultural land cover in our model.…”

Section: Species Distribution Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining community science and MaxEnt modeling to estimate Wild Turkey ( Meleagris gallopavo ) winter abundance and distribution

Baici¹,

Bowman²

2023

ACE

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Understanding the distribution and abundance of species is a fundamental aspect of conservation biology. Species distribution models aim to predict distributions based on species observations and ecologically relevant information. To understand the contemporary distribution of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in Ontario, we curated and collated Wild Turkey flock observations from eBird and iNaturalist submitted during winter 2018. We combined these with environmental predictors to build distribution models using MaxEnt and evaluated model fit using 10-fold cross validation. We also estimated total population size for this species under different modeling scenarios. The potential presence of unknown spatial bias in community science datasets is a complex problem often requiring context-specific statistical solutions. Data cleaning, sometimes referred to as thinning, filtering, or culling, is often proposed to manage this bias. As such, we tested the effect of data cleaning on model outputs and on subsequent analyses. We evaluated all models using area under the curve (AUC). We found building density to be the most important environmental variable followed by winter severity. We validated our habitat suitability estimates using fine-scale GPS data and found that data cleaning had no effect on habitat suitability estimates inside available Wild Turkey habitat or inside core-use areas, except at one site in 2012 (t = -2.2, P = 0.04, df = 14). Use of community collected data offers a cost-efficient and collaborative method to obtain data for species distribution modeling and management. We discuss implications for Wild Turkey management and present potential contemporary distribution maps for this species. Combinaison de science citoyenne et de modélisation MaxEnt pour estimer l'abondance et la répartition hivernale du Dindon sauvage (Meleagris gallopavo)RÉSUMÉ. La compréhension de la répartition et de l'abondance des espèces est un des aspects fondamentaux de la biologie de la conservation. Les modèles de répartition d'espèces visent à prédire la répartition sur la base d'observations d'espèces et d'informations écologiquement pertinentes. Pour établir la répartition contemporaine du Dindon sauvage (Meleagris gallopavo) en Ontario, nous avons extrait et colligé les observations de groupes de dindons provenant d'eBird et d'iNaturalist soumises au cours de l'hiver 2018. Nous les avons combinées avec des variables explicatives environnementales pour construire des modèles de répartition à l'aide de MaxEnt et avons évalué l'ajustement des modèles à l'aide d'une validation croisée répétée 10 fois. Nous avons également estimé la taille de la population selon différents scénarios de modélisation. La présence potentielle d'un biais spatial inconnu dans les jeux de données issus de programmes de science citoyenne est un problème complexe qui nécessite souvent des solutions statistiques spécifiques au contexte. Pour gérer ce biais, il est souvent proposé aux spécialistes de procéder au nettoyage des données, parfois appelé «...

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“…ecology that can influence demography and spatial distribution [32]. The primary benefits of roosting are reduced predation risk and protection from adverse weather conditions [33,34]. Previous research on wild turkey roosting ecology has focused on roost tree descriptions and associated habitat conditions [35][36][37], and aspects of roost site selection at microhabitat or landscape scales [38][39][40][41][42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial roost networks and resource selection of female wild turkeys

Bakner,

Ulrey,

Wightman

et al. 2024

R. Soc. Open Sci.

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Wildlife demography is influenced by behavioural decisions, with sleep being a crucial avian behaviour. Avian species use roost sites to minimize thermoregulation costs, predation risk and enhance foraging efficiency. Sleep locations are often reused, forming networks within the home range. Our study, focusing on female eastern wild turkeys ( Meleagris gallopavo silvestris ) during the reproductive season, used social network analysis to quantify both roost site selection and network structure. We identified roost networks which were composed of a small percentage of hub roost sites connecting satellite roosts. Hub roosts were characterized by greater values of betweenness ( β = 0.62, s.e. = 0.02), closeness ( β = 0.59, s.e. = 0.03) and eigenvalue centrality ( β = 1.15, s.e. = 0.05), indicating their importance as connectors and proximity to the network’s functional centre. The probability of a roost being a hub increased significantly with greater eigenvalue centrality. Female wild turkeys consistently chose roost sites at lower elevations and with greater topographical ruggedness. Hub roost probability was higher near secondary roads and further from water. Our research highlights well-organized roost site networks around hub roosts, emphasizing the importance of further investigations into how these networks influence conspecific interactions, reproduction and resource utilization in wild turkeys.

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Winter Use of Agricultural Habitats by Wild Turkeys in Massachusetts

Cited by 23 publications

References 12 publications

Seasonal roost selection of wild turkeys at their northern range edge

Seasonal roost selection of wild turkeys at their northern range edge

Combining community science and MaxEnt modeling to estimate Wild Turkey ( Meleagris gallopavo ) winter abundance and distribution

Spatial roost networks and resource selection of female wild turkeys

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