Title: Gobbling chronology of eastern wild turkeys in South Carolina

Abstract

Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) use a polygynous-promiscuous mating system, wherein males compete for mating opportunities and communicate with females via courtship behaviors. One courtship behavior is vocalization (gobbling), which attracts females and signals dominance to other males. However, temporal variation in gobbling activity may be influenced by external stimuli, environmental variation, and hunter activity. Gobbling activity is a key determinant of hunter satisfaction, and gobbling chronology is often used by state agencies to inform regulatory processes. To identify factors influencing gobbling activity, we evaluated daily gobbling chronology on 3 sites in South Carolina, USA (Webb Wildlife Management Area [WMA] Complex, Savannah River Site, Crackerneck WMA) with different levels of hunter activity.We used autonomous recording units (ARUs; n = 45) across 8,280 days to collect 53,937 hours of ambient sound recordings and identified 68,426 gobbles. Gobbling activity varied daily and site interacting with minutes since sunrise best predicted daily gobbling activity. Furthermore, we noted distinct differences in predicted numbers of gobbles between hunted sites and an unhunted site, suggesting that hunting may be an important determinant of gobbling activity.Across our study sites, we observed that ≥72% of gobbling activity occurred between 30minutes before and 60minutes after sunrise. We foundmore » no clear evidence of well-defined unimodal or bimodal peaks in daily or weekly gobbling activity. Across sites, <44% of gobbling activity occurred during legal hunting seasons in South Carolina, with between 30% and 48% of gobbling activity occurring after legal hunting seasons. Because hunter satisfaction is primarily influenced by gobbling activity, wildlife managers in South Carolina may consider adjusting dates of turkey hunting seasons to correspond hunting with periods when most gobbling occurs.« less

Authors:

Wightman, Patrick H. ^[1]; Kilgo, John C. ^[2]; Vukovich, Mark ^[2]; Cantrell, Jay R. ^[3]; Ruth, Charles R. ^[3]; Cohen, Bradley S. ^[4]; Chamberlain, Michael J. ^[5]; Collier, Bret A. ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Louisiana State Univ. Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
2. USDA Forest Service, New Ellenton, SC (United States)
3. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Columbia, SC (United States)
4. Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States)
5. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)

Publication Date:

Tue Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2018

Research Org.:

USDA Forest Service-Savannah River, New Ellenton, SC (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM), Acquisition and Project Management

Contributing Org.:

USDA Forest Service-Savannah River

OSTI Identifier:

1512082

Report Number(s):

19-01-P
Journal ID: ISSN 0022-541X; 19-01-P

Grant/Contract Number:  

EM0003622

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Wildlife Management

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 83; Journal Issue: 2; Related Information: The Journal of Wildlife Management 83(2):325–333; 2019; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-541X

Publisher:

Wiley

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES; gobbling chronology; hunting; hunting regulations; Meleagris gallopavo; season timing; wild turkey