Wild Turkey Science

In this episode, we discuss the large-scale habitat changes that may have contributed to wild turkey decline, key management strategies that shifted the landscapes, what changes contributed to habitat loss, and what we can do to save the poults moving forward. Papers: Barnes, Thomas G., Stephen J. DeMaso, and Matt A. Bahm. "The impact of 3 exotic, invasive grasses in the southeastern United States on wildlife." Wildlife Society Bulletin 37.3 (2013): 497-502. Carmichael Jr, D. Breck. "The Conservation Reserve Program and wildlife habitat in the southeastern United States." Wildlife Society Bulletin (1997): 773-775. Martinuzzi, Sebastián, et al. "Scenarios of future land use change around United States' protected areas." Biological Conservation 184 (2015): 446-455. Napton, Darrell E., et al. "Land changes and their driving forces in the Southeastern United States." Regional Environmental Change 10 (2010): 37-53. Nowacki, Gregory J., and Marc D. Abrams. "The demise of fire and "mesophication" of forests in the eastern United States." BioScience 58.2 (2008): 123-138. Griffith, Jerry A., Stephen V. Stehman, and Thomas R. Loveland. "Landscape trends in mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States ecoregions." Environmental Management 32 (2003): 572-588. Videos: Leaf Traits Affect Fire Behavior in Upland Hardwoods How Varying Fire Return Intervals Affect Plant Communities Over Decades Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

Dr. Colter Chitwood re-joins the podcast to give us an update of the on-going turkey research in the state of Oklahoma. Learn details of the hunter-led work estimating vital rates to increase poult per hen ratios, and learn how state-wide genetics can help us understand turkey movement across the landscape. Dr. Colter Chitwood (Academic Profile) Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

Dr. Chris Moorman rejoins the podcast to discuss the use of prescribed fire during nesting season. Also, gain inside details on the studies Dr. Moorman has led concerning burn timing as it relates to ground nesting birds. Papers: Kilburg, Eric L., et al. "Wild turkey nest survival and nest‐site selection in the presence of growing‐season prescribed fire." The Journal of Wildlife Management 78.6 (2014): 1033-1039. Kilburg, Eric L., et al. "Wild turkey prenesting-resource selection in a landscape managed with frequent prescribed fire." Southeastern Naturalist 14.1 (2015): 137-146. Kroeger, Anthony J., et al. "Northern bobwhite non‐breeding habitat selection in a longleaf pine woodland." The Journal of Wildlife Management 84.7 (2020): 1348-1360. Winiarski, Jason M., et al. "Nest-site selection and nest survival of Bachman's Sparrows in two longleaf pine communities." The Condor: Ornithological Applications 119.3 (2017): 361-374. Dr. Chris Moorman (habitatdoc) (Academic Profile) Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

Dr. Colter Chitwood re-joins the podcast to give us an update of the on-going turkey research in the state of Oklahoma. Learn details of the hunter-led work estimating vital rates to increase poult per hen ratios, and learn how state-wide genetics can help us understand turkey movement across the landscape. Dr. Colter Chitwood (Academic Profile) Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

In this episode, we review our episodes on the density-dependence hypothesis, what we learned from conversations with experts, and implications this may have on management of the wild turkey moving forward. Papers: Bond, Bobby T., et al. "Thirty-year case study showing a negative relationship between population and reproductive indices of eastern wild turkeys in Georgia." Georgia Journal of Science 70.2 (2012): 5. Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

In this episode, we give you an update on the ongoing projects in Alabama including preliminary results on which gobblers can breed, the most common predators of nests, effects of hunting on gobbling, and more. Paper: Proportion of tom's had testes large enough that they could breed Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

Is density dependence operating on wild turkeys? Dr. Bret Collier walks us through his point of view on density dependence and whether it is responsible for observed changes in turkey populations. We cover a lot of ground and discuss various aspects of wild turkey biology from many studies and regions. Papers Byrne, M. E., Chamberlain, M. J., & Collier, B. A. (2015). Potential density dependence in wild turkey productivity in the southeastern United States. In Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium (Vol. 11, pp. 329-351). Collier, B. A., Melton, K. B., Hardin, J. B., Silvy, N. J., & Peterson, M. J. (2009). Impact of reproductive effort on survival of Rio Grande wild turkey Meleagris gallop intermedia hens in Texas. Wildlife Biology, 15(4), 370-379. Randel, C. J., Aguirre, R., Jones, D. A., Schaap, J. N., Willsey, B. J., Peterson, M. J., & Silvy, N. J. (2005). Nesting ecology of Rio Grande wild turkey in the Edwards Plateau of Texas. In Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium (Vol. 9, pp. 37-243). Schwertner, T. W., Peterson, M. J., & Silvy, N. J. (2007). Effect of precipitation on Rio Grande wild turkey poult production in Texas. In Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium (Vol. 9, pp. 127-132). Dr. Bret Collier (drshortspur) (Academic Profile) Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

What is density-dependence and could it be driving the patterns we're seeing in declining populations? Dr. Mark McConnell joins Marcus and Will to pull knowledge from research on density-dependence in upland game bird species and how these factors may affect wild turkey populations. Papers: Byrne, Michael E., et al. "Nest site fidelity and nesting success of female wild turkeys." Wildlife Society Bulletin 46.2 (2022): e1279. Guthrie, Joshua D., et al. "Evaluation of a global positioning system backpack transmitter for wild turkey research." The Journal of Wildlife Management 75.3 (2011): 539-547. Londe, David W., et al. "Review of range‐wide vital rates quantifies eastern wild Turkey population trajectory." Ecology and Evolution 13.2 (2023): e9830. McGhee, Jay D., and James M. Berkson. "Estimation of a nonlinear density-dependence parameter for wild turkey." The Journal of wildlife management 71.3 (2007): 706-712. McGhee, Jay D., and Jim Berkson. "Correlation of eastern wild turkey poult: hen ratios with population indices to detect reproductive density dependence." Virginia Journal of Science 58.3 (2007): 3. Stevens, Bryan S., et al. "Structural uncertainty limits generality of fall harvest strategies for wild turkeys." The Journal of Wildlife Management 81.4 (2017): 617-628. Taylor II, Jimmy D., et al. "Seasonal survival and cause-specific mortality of northern bobwhites in Mississippi." National Quail Symposium Proceedings. Vol. 4. No. 1. 2000. Vangilder, Larry D., and Eric W. Kurzejeski. "Population ecology of the eastern wild turkey in northern Missouri." Wildlife Monographs (1995): 3-50. Dr. Mark McConnell (Academic Profile) Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

What does the available wild turkey research tell us and what gaps need to be filled moving forward? Dr. Chitwood walks us through 50+ years of published literature on eastern wild turkey vital rates. They literally incorporated all of the vital rates published on easterns into a model, to determine the status of population trajectories, and identify which factor was most important in driving those trajectories. This is the first release of the only known, all-inclusive meta-analysis on the wild turkey, so tune in, it is powerful. If you're thinking nesting or brooding success…think again. Paper: Londe, David W., et al. "Review of range‐wide vital rates quantifies eastern wild Turkey population trajectory." Ecology and Evolution 13.2 (2023): e9830. Figures: Figure 01 Figure 02 Dr. Colter Chitwood (Academic Profile) Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak

It's obvious that we need to do something about poult-rearing cover. What are the opportunities for you to help on land you don't own? Join Marcus and Will as they discuss what desirable brooding cover looks like, how to achieve it, and how and where our listeners have improved turkey habitat on the places they hunt. This is a bonus episode for the tremendous feedback and questions received related to this topic. Paper: Palmer, William E., et al. "Effect of field borders and nest‐predator reduction on abundance of northern bobwhites." Wildlife Society Bulletin 33.4 (2005): 1398-1405. Dr. Marcus Lashley (DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (turkeysfortomorrow) UF DEER Lab (ufdeerlab) Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. Produced by Charlotte Nowak