Reproductive Effort and Success in a Declining Wild Turkey Population
We monitored reproductive effort and success of a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) population on a public wildlife management area in Mississippi for 9 years using telemetry and other indices. Adult hens (N = 143) had a nesting rate of 72.7% (range 54-100) and was greater (P = 0.0001) than the nesting rate (26.7%) of juvenile hens (N = 15). Annual nest success of 104 nests of adult hens averaged 30.8% (range 0-62) and poult survival to >50 days was 22.7% for 27 broods (N = 203 poults). Clutch size averaged 9.1 (SE = 0.54) and 6.7 (SE = 1.1), and hatchability was 93% and 100%, for first...
