Larry H. Barwick

Stomach and crop contents of 75 turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo osceola) poults from 1 to 164 days old and 8 adults, collected from April through October in Glades and Alachua Counties, Florida, were identified and measured by volume displacement. Vegetable material accounted for 75.0 percent and animal material for 25.0 percent of the diet by volume of poults 1 to 14 days old. Poults 15 to 164 days old ate 72.8 percent vegetable and 27.2 percent animal foods. The most important single item in the diet of the I to 14 day old group was "stargrass" (Hypoxis leptocarpa) - this was replaced in...

During spring and summer in 1969 and 1970 approximately 200 observations were made of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) brood roosting sites, most of which were found by radio-telemetry. The age that broods began to roost in trees varied from 12 to 19 days for the 14 broods. Most of the ground roosts were located under forest canopies in sparse ground cover. Brood hens normally did not defecate in their ground roosts. After tree roosting began, broods utilized cypress (Taxodium ascendens and T. distichum) and pine (Pinus palustris and P. elliottii) more than all other trees combined. The...