Jason B. Hardin

Wildlife managers rely on accurate information regarding wild turkey habitat selection and use to appropriately structure management activities. We used integrated VHF-GPS transmitters to evaluate fine scale movements and habitat selection of male Rio Grande wild turkeys (Meleagris gal- lapavo intermedia) in south Texas. As our study coincided with the regions second worst recorded drought, we evaluated the influence of supplemental resources (supplemental feeding and managed surface water) on turkey distribution and movements. We deployed eight GPS units on adult male Rio Grande wild...

Despite a long history of research on northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhites), there has not been a comprehensive assessment of how bobwhite productivity varies across a landscape in relation to environmental factors such as weather. Due to concerns of global climate change and range-wide decline of the bobwhite, further understanding the relationship between weather and bobwhite population dynamics is needed. The objectives of this study were to determine 1) how do among-year bobwhite masses, age ratios, and sex ratios change at the landscape scale, 2) can fall...

Sustainable management of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) requires information on distribution and abundance across the range. Techniques for surveying wild turkey populations in Texas are constrained by land access issues, requiring integration of landowners and managers into monitoring activities. We evaluated the use of 1) aerial surveys for estimating the distribution of Rio Grande wild turkeys (M. g. intermedia) relative to roosting habitat, and 2) multiple-observer roost counts for estimating local turkey abundance and roost-site fidelity within the Texas coastal sand plain....