Here's a photo from an interesting study of an eastern toms roost sites from mar-May. Lot more moving around then a lot of folks would think. Goes to show sometimes you just have to go and let the day unfold! Birds can move around quick! (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200410/96ff91036f668c7e2efb912c0d9a4a3e.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200410/285793877e56dce5b0096d586cc01bf5.jpg)
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I wholeheartedly believe this. Just about when I think I have a gobblers roost nailed down, I go in after him and he's 400 yards from where I thought I had him pinned.
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Could you provide a link to the study please? Thank you.
Interesting stuff. For me, the next question would be if this gobbler was being hunted during this time period,...and if so, how much? Personally, I would be very surprised if this bird was not getting hunting pretty hard to have that much variation in his roost sites.
You really can't call this a "study" as much as an "experiment",...that is, assuming there were not other gobblers involved,...and especially if there was not some sort of "control groups" of both hunted and unhunted gobblers. If those control groups did exist, I would be extremely surprised if the unhunted birds were not much truer to their traditional roost sites.
Looking at this from a "turkey biologist" standpoint, my immediate concern would be how this amount of variation would impact breeding and nesting. With this amount of roost disruption,...and if it was indeed related to hunting pressure as I would suspect,....I would want to be absolutely certain that the population had ample time to breed before starting the hunting season.
Quote from: GobbleNut on April 10, 2020, 08:50:30 AM
Interesting stuff. For me, the next question would be if this gobbler was being hunted during this time period,...and if so, how much? Personally, I would be very surprised if this bird was not getting hunting pretty hard to have that much variation in his roost sites.
You really can't call this a "study" as much as an "experiment",...that is, assuming there were not other gobblers involved,...and especially if there was not some sort of "control groups" of both hunted and unhunted gobblers. If those control groups did exist, I would be extremely surprised if the unhunted birds were not much truer to their traditional roost sites.
Looking at this from a "turkey biologist" standpoint, my immediate concern would be how this amount of variation would impact breeding and nesting. With this amount of roost disruption,...and if it was indeed related to hunting pressure as I would suspect,....I would want to be absolutely certain that the population had ample time to breed before starting the hunting season.
Pretty sure those maps came from the biologist Micheal Chamberlain's facebook page who is interviewed in the meateater podcast. If so he has been studying turkeys for the last 25 years. He post maps like these on his Twitter account and Facebook page. The are small insight to the larger studies he has been performing for years. If you'll listen to the podcast you'll learn eastern gobblers never return to the same roost 2 days in a row. You may hear a gobbler in the same roost area but he explains how its different birds. Its a defense mechanism designed to keep him safe from predators. Dr Chamberlain does a much better job of explaining this than I can. If you haven't already you need to listen to this podcast. It discusses everything from predators, hunting pressure, and the breeding habits of wild turkeys. It's a long podcast 2 1/2hrs and filled with great information from his research.
This is what he had to say about the picture. Link to his Facebook page underneath.
This Turkey Tuesday is about how toms select roost sites, and how many roost sites they use during spring. I get asked quite a bit, "how many roosts does a tom use during the hunting season"? Well, this figure shows nightly roost sites of a tom during March-May, and shows a typical behavior we see in the Eastern subspecies. I used to think that toms returned to the same roosts each night, but we find that not to be the case. Instead, toms have many roosts they use, and although clearly they return to places (note the "clumps" of dots), they typically do not use the same roost site each night. Instead, we see that oftentimes, a tom will leave a roost site and another tom will use that same area that night. Clearly, roost sites are places where toms feel safe and believe they can attract hens (assuming they gobble there). But it also makes sense to use a different roost each night, at least to some degree. Don't go to the same place each night and gobble there the next morning, doing so allows predators to key in on your locations. The take home is, roosting behavior is something we're now beginning to better understand, as we learn more about how this bird behaves. https://www.facebook.com/michael.chamberlain.31
Quote from: Paulmyr on April 10, 2020, 10:54:32 AM
Quote from: GobbleNut on April 10, 2020, 08:50:30 AM
Interesting stuff. For me, the next question would be if this gobbler was being hunted during this time period,...and if so, how much? Personally, I would be very surprised if this bird was not getting hunting pretty hard to have that much variation in his roost sites.
You really can't call this a "study" as much as an "experiment",...that is, assuming there were not other gobblers involved,...and especially if there was not some sort of "control groups" of both hunted and unhunted gobblers. If those control groups did exist, I would be extremely surprised if the unhunted birds were not much truer to their traditional roost sites.
Looking at this from a "turkey biologist" standpoint, my immediate concern would be how this amount of variation would impact breeding and nesting. With this amount of roost disruption,...and if it was indeed related to hunting pressure as I would suspect,....I would want to be absolutely certain that the population had ample time to breed before starting the hunting season.
If you'll listen to the podcast you'll learn eastern gobblers never return to the same roost 2 days in a row. You may hear a gobbler in the same roost area but he explains how its different birds. Its a defense mechanism designed to keep him safe from predators.
"never return" was a bad choice of words. I should have used the terms "highly unlikely"
To many variables for this to be concrete. Toms with hens do tend to roost in the same vicinity unless pressured. Didn't say same tree but same area. A lone gobbler is known to travel 5 miles a day. How many guys see the same flock in the same field day in and day out? A lot. Way to many variables for this to be any meaning
Quote from: turkey_slayer on April 10, 2020, 01:37:43 PM
To many variables for this to be concrete. Toms with hens do tend to roost in the same vicinity unless pressured. Didn't say same tree but same area. A lone gobbler is known to travel 5 miles a day. How many guys see the same flock in the same field day in and day out? A lot. Way to many variables for this to be any meaning
Listen to the podcast you might change your opinion.
As a Georgia boy, this doesn't surprise me at all.
I was astounded when I hunted Rios in Texas and they roosted in the same tree every day
Listened to the Meateater podcast Michael Chamberlain was on yesterday while at work, interesting stuff. These roost sites are very similar to leks that sage grouse use out west. Good roosting locations that allow for the gobble to carry over a long distance and be heard. You gotta remember we ask the gobbler to do opposite of what normal breeding would be by making them come to us rather than what hens naturally do. The defense mechanism of not sleeping in the same place twice comes into it as well. Was also interesting to listen about how our hunting start dates may be the real reason we are seeing declines in populations, he quoted another biologist by the name of Bill, don't remember the last name, who brought this up in the 70's and 80's. Give it a listen, the mans been chasing turkeys since he was a kid and comes at it from the academic side of things.
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Quote from: Paulmyr on April 10, 2020, 04:15:56 PM
Quote from: turkey_slayer on April 10, 2020, 01:37:43 PM
To many variables for this to be concrete. Toms with hens do tend to roost in the same vicinity unless pressured. Didn't say same tree but same area. A lone gobbler is known to travel 5 miles a day. How many guys see the same flock in the same field day in and day out? A lot. Way to many variables for this to be any meaning
Listen to the podcast you might change your opinion.
I am. Had it bookmarked for a few days till I get time. But it still want disprove what I'm saying. I can watch and hear the same flock at the house everyday. 6 toms with 18 hens. Im not saying he's wrong but every gobbler? No way. To many variables. Or do you believe when you hear a bird from the same spot 2 days in a row its a different bird? Did Tom call Jake the prior day and say hey you can have that spot I want be back? I'm not trying to be a smart butt or argumentative but surely everyone thats hunted for a short time has ran into birds that you know where they will be at daybreak.
I take issue with: "But it also makes sense to use a different roost each night, at least to some degree. Don't go to the same place each night and gobble there the next morning, doing so allows predators to key in on your locations." If he had said Gobblers are genetically programmed through natural selection to move around as the ones that do not are more vulnerable to predators (both non-human as well as human), then I could agree. No chance a gobbler can reason they need to move around. Hence why some folks kill the bird that tends to not move around as much. I do think he is mostly right though about Easterns.
Quote from: turkey_slayer on April 10, 2020, 04:46:28 PM
Quote from: Paulmyr on April 10, 2020, 04:15:56 PM
Quote from: turkey_slayer on April 10, 2020, 01:37:43 PM
To many variables for this to be concrete. Toms with hens do tend to roost in the same vicinity unless pressured. Didn't say same tree but same area. A lone gobbler is known to travel 5 miles a day. How many guys see the same flock in the same field day in and day out? A lot. Way to many variables for this to be any meaning
Listen to the podcast you might change your opinion.
I am. Had it bookmarked for a few days till I get time. But it still want disprove what I'm saying. I can watch and hear the same flock at the house everyday. 6 toms with 18 hens. Im not saying he's wrong but every gobbler? No way. To many variables. Or do you believe when you hear a bird from the same spot 2 days in a row its a different bird? Did Tom call Jake the prior day and say hey you can have that spot I want be back? I'm not trying to be a smart butt or argumentative but surely everyone thats hunted for a short time has ran into birds that you know where they will be at daybreak.
He talks about this in the podcast. Turkeys are like people. They are not exactly alike but show general behavioral characteristics. I tend to believe a biologist/hunter who has studied the bird his whole adult life with more tools in his arsenal than what he hears from his house.
I haven't listened to the podcast yet but will. I will also add I can say with 100% certainty I have seen a Gobbler roost on the same ridge 3 nights in a row, and the same Pine tree two consecutive nights. There is no doubt it was the same Gobbler because there was no other Gobbler in this block of woods and when I killed him there was not another gobble heard or new Gobbler tracks on that ridge for the remainder of the season. Not hard to be sure you are dealing with the same Gobbler when there is not another one around. Some of the National forests I hunt in La are one Gobbler to about every 3 miles and that's no exaggeration.
Again, I find the pictures and info given to be interesting. Further, I do not doubt Mr. Chamberlains credentials a bit. However, I would have to see the full set of parameters used in his work to be able to support the notion that the Eastern subspecies exhibits this roosting behavior as a general rule. As others have already stated, it can be established as fact that this roosting behavior is not consistent with other subspecies and/or in other parts of the country.
I would hope the parameters he used to come to his conclusions regarding the turkey population he studied were biologically sound. One of the parameters for any study such as this is to establish a control group. In this particular case, if the goal is to establish roosting habits of gobblers in the study area, one must first establish a control group that eliminates or "controls" the variables as much as possible.
One of the most obvious variables during the timeline of the study is that it coincides with spring gobbler season. Hunting pressure is a major disruptor of turkey behavior during that time. Hence, in order to draw conclusions about the normal roosting patterns of the turkeys in the study area, you would have to be studying a group of turkeys that are not being hunted. I don't know if his study was done in an unhunted population of birds or not, but if it was not, there is no way he could conclude that the roosting behavior he documented was "normal" or if was possibly caused by human hunting pressure.
This data was given off one bird. Anyone that turkey hunts long enough knows that no 2 birds act the same. If you believe his theory about a gobbler never roosting in the same place 2 nights in a row then thats your right. I have a spot that you can hear a bird gobbling from the same roosting spot all season. I must have a lot more gobblers on my place than what I thought. There must be about a dozen gobblers alternating sleeping there. All of them are pretty slick too , because they act the same. Gobble 2 or 3 times , hit the ground and cruise around drumming all morning.
Actually, I'm kind of surprised , the roost area isn't bigger
I think he simply presented this as an example, not some inviolate absolute rule that applies to every turkey everywhere. We can all think of exceptions.
You guys kill me. This is just one bird in the study. It's a Facebook post. He obviously isn't going to post the data from all the gobblers in his study. He was using this as an example of what his over all research has proven.This is specific to his research of eastern turkeys only. He states in the podcast that good roosting sites vary the degree that gobblers change roost sites. 1 gobbler for every three miles is tough and this podcast goes along ways to explaining why that may have happened in your area.
Sorry guys misspoke in this post so I deleted it.
Quote from: GobbleNut on April 10, 2020, 08:50:30 AM
Looking at this from a "turkey biologist" standpoint, my immediate concern would be how this amount of variation would impact breeding and nesting. With this amount of roost disruption,...and if it was indeed related to hunting pressure as I would suspect,....I would want to be absolutely certain that the population had ample time to breed before starting the hunting season.
He goes into hunting pressure and how it effects breeding cycles. I got a feeling a lot of southern boys, if they listen, aren't going to like what they hear.
Those of you that haven't listened to the podcast.. stop what your doing and do it now. You will learn more in a few hours than you ever thought possible.
Quote from: LaLongbeard on April 10, 2020, 06:47:40 PM
I haven't listened to the podcast yet but will. I will also add I can say with 100% certainty I have seen a Gobbler roost on the same ridge 3 nights in a row, and the same Pine tree two consecutive nights. There is no doubt it was the same Gobbler because there was no other Gobbler in this block of woods and when I killed him there was not another gobble heard or new Gobbler tracks on that ridge for the remainder of the season. Not hard to be sure you are dealing with the same Gobbler when there is not another one around. Some of the National forests I hunt in La are one Gobbler to about every 3 miles and that's no exaggeration.
I can vouch for this.
Quote from: Tomfoolery on April 11, 2020, 12:23:09 PM
Quote from: LaLongbeard on April 10, 2020, 06:47:40 PM
I haven't listened to the podcast yet but will. I will also add I can say with 100% certainty I have seen a Gobbler roost on the same ridge 3 nights in a row, and the same Pine tree two consecutive nights. There is no doubt it was the same Gobbler because there was no other Gobbler in this block of woods and when I killed him there was not another gobble heard or new Gobbler tracks on that ridge for the remainder of the season. Not hard to be sure you are dealing with the same Gobbler when there is not another one around. Some of the National forests I hunt in La are one Gobbler to about every 3 miles and that's no exaggeration.
I can vouch for this.
In 30 years of hunting in 5 different states from the deep South to northern Mn hunting heavily pressured birds to areas where pressured was almost nonexistent I can say with out a doubt Dr . Chamberlain's explanation of changing roost sites is the the norm and not the exception where I have hunted. Will there be cases where you find a bird roosting in one location more than one night at time. I'm sure there is. In my experience hunting areas that aren't loaded with Tom's and it is somewhat possible to track individual or small groups of birds it is not typical behavior. They will be here today gone tomarrow. Sometimes the move is a couple hundred yds sometimes over a mile. Rarely do they roost in the same tree or close to it.
Hunted some pasture and farm country in Northern Missouri for a lot of years. There were some that would roost in the same tree for multiple nights. Most can be consistent roost trees year after year . The gobblers around there move around for miles , we believe searching for receptive hens. But once they find them they stick around for a few days then move on from a quarter to a half mile or so. For every year i can remember the birds move North to south (from bigger timber areas which are no hunting), just a guess as when and how much.
I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.
Quote from: LaLongbeard on April 11, 2020, 06:42:38 PM
I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.
I agree, I am reading Book of the Wild Turkey by Lovett Williams and much of it was the same information. I felt even the picture graph looked much like the ones by Lovett Williams and when he talked about aging a turkey by the primary feathers I think it was that was also in Lovett Williams Book of the Wild Turkey. He did mention Lovett Williams as well.
Quote from: LaLongbeard on April 11, 2020, 06:42:38 PM
I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.
You seem to take offense towards Dr. Chamberlain's work which I find odd considering he confirms what these writers stated years ago.
I would think as turkey hunters people would be glad there is a guy out there doing the research that needs to be done in order confirm one way or the other the problems facing wild turkeys today.
As most of us know govt agencies don't scratch their butts without appointing a blue ribbon panel of bureaucrats to tell them how to do it. This guy's research hopefully goes along ways towards better management of the turkey itself. I could be reading something into your words that's not there, if so I apologize.
Quote from: Paulmyr on April 11, 2020, 11:43:04 PM
Quote from: LaLongbeard on April 11, 2020, 06:42:38 PM
I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.
You seem to take offense towards Dr. Chamberlain's work which I find odd considering he confirms what these writers stated years ago.
I would think as turkey hunters people would be glad there is a guy out there doing the research that needs to be done in order confirm one way or the other the problems facing wild turkeys today.
As most of us know govt agencies don't scratch their butts without appointing a blue ribbon panel of bureaucrats to tell them how to do it. This guy's research hopefully goes along ways towards better management of the turkey itself. I could be reading something into your words that's not there, if so I apologize.
No you are confused by what you read. I agreed with just about everything he said on the podcast. The POINT I'm making is none of it is new,most of it is 30 years old. Also pointed out a lot of people think this is some new revelation lol,and I think it's because they can't or won't read a book. If Lovett Williams would have been on Instagram you'd all think he was the Turkey guru, which he was.
It's about like a 8 year old running up too you excited to tell you Santa Claus ain't real...... yea we got it lol.
Well I guess you have to forgive us "little boys" because our library is not as extensive as yours.
Quote from: Paulmyr on April 12, 2020, 09:43:22 AM
Well I guess you have to forgive us "little boys" because our library is not as extensive as yours.
No sweat, they do have these places in most towns that have books on shelves they will lend you for free, if you can imagine that! Maybe you could get someone to read one to you.
Quote from: LaLongbeard on April 12, 2020, 11:42:17 AM
Quote from: Paulmyr on April 12, 2020, 09:43:22 AM
Well I guess you have to forgive us "little boys" because our library is not as extensive as yours.
No sweat, they do have these places in most towns that have books on shelves they will lend you for free, if you can imagine that! Maybe you could get someone to read one to you.
Yeah and they have this thing called the "interwebs" where people can go to disseminate information hopefully without being belittled and degraded by some snob because they don't worship at the alter of his deities!
Getting back to your original post, Arky,...I, too, was surprised by the amount of travel and variation in roost locations for this gobbler. I would state with a high level of certainty that the Merriam's turkeys in the country I am familiar with do not exhibit the same roosting habits,...even when they are being hunted pretty hard.
Again, I would be very interested in knowing details about the influence of hunting in this bird's movements,...and conversely, if gobblers that are not hunted in the same region exhibit those same roosting habits. From a turkey management standpoint, that information could be quite valuable. Hopefully, that was a question that was in mind at the onset of the study.
I'm not sure but my guess is this is a small tidbit info gleened from radio transmitters placed on birds to track their over all movements. Think I'm going to try and find more info on Dr Chamberlain's studies and hopefully the research itself. Should make for an interesting read.
I found one of the studies Dr. Chamberlain was involved in 2017 and 18 while affiliated with the university of Georgia and it actually is about how hunting pressure effects roost fidelity. So far as I'm reading I'm getting the impression that it doesn't have a dramatic effect but I'm not finished yet. Came back here to post a link for you guys
You can find it at
researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/80140624_Michael_J_Chamberlain
You guys will have to copy and paste because I'm not sure how to post a link.
This is basically the conclusion copy and pasted from the study.
Roost sites play an important role in mediating survival and reproductive efforts of male turkeys, as roosts provide elevated perches for calling and protection from predators. Male turkeys must balance the spatial and temporal
aspects of roosting to attract females and maximize breeding opportunities, with increased predation risks while turkey hunters are afield. Male turkeys primarily roosted in hardwood and pine forests prior to onset of hunting but altered use once hunting began. Males showed little fidelity to roost sites and moved consid-
erable distances between consecutive roosts. We failed to find support for the hypothesis that vegetation density and the presence of roads would influence roost selection. Collectively, our findings suggest that hunting activity may prompt males to alter locations chosen for roosting,
but hunting appears to have little influence on fidelity to roost sites or distances traveled between consecutive roosts.
Our findings supported the hypothesis that males would select roost sites in areas to maximize encounters with females. Specifically, males selected hardwood and pine areas for roosting prior to onset of hunting, presumably to prop-
agate calls and attract attention from available females (Brown et al. 1995, Couldridge and Van Staaden 2004, Nicholls and Goldizen 2006). Female turkeys select similar land cover types for roosts in landscapes such as ours (Miller
et al. 1999, Chamberlain et al. 2000), and more importantly, females exhibit strong selection for pine forests with onset of the reproductive season (Miller et al. 1999, Chamberlain et al. 2000, Miller and Conner 2007). Hence, it is likely that
males selected hardwood and pine forests for roosting so that they optimized encounters with reproductively active and receptive females, consistent with behaviors within species
using similar mating strategies (Kotrschal and Taborsky 2010, Morales et al. 2014). Open areas can be important to turkeys for displaying on some landscapes (Barwick and Speake 1973, Godwin et al. 1992, Holdstock et al. 2005), and sound propagation can be positively influenced by open areas (Koda et al. 2008, Ey and Fischer 2009, Ey et al. 2009). Our analyses, however, were focused solely on roost sites, which would naturally be associated with forested areas rather
than treeless, open areas.
We observed low RF values, suggesting low reuse of roost sites, consistent with the findings of Byrne et al. (2015). Males also tended to move relatively great distances between consecutive roost sites, suggesting that calling from a par-
ticular roost site and then shifting to other roosts may be a strategy used by male eastern wild turkeys to minimize predation risk and increase exposure to receptive females. Additionally, we failed to find support for our hypothesis
that hunting activity would influence roost site fidelity. Rather, roost fidelity was unaffected by the presence of hunting activity: we suggest that decreased fidelity may also alleviate risks associated with consecutively calling from the
same location. Low RF values, combined with considerable distances between consecutive roost sites, indicate that males do not typically select the same roost sites across
consecutive nights. Low roost site fidelity may occur because males use the greatest area and travel most during the re-
productive season (Hoffman 1991, Godwin et al. 1994, Holdstock et al. 2005), presumably to increase opportunities to maximize sound propagation across the landscape by and other landscapes similar to those detailed herein (Byrne
et al. 2015). Future research should explore the possibility that males shift roosting locations to increase exposure to new females and increase breeding opportunities, while also reducing increases in predation risk associated with con-
sistent calling in a given area (Boyko et al. 2004).
Hunting activity influences male turkey space use,
movements, and calling (Kienzler et al. 1995, Lehman et al. 2005, Wightman et al. 2019, Wakefield et al. 2020), and can alter habitat selection in other species (Lone et al.
2015, Padié et al. 2015). Males selected pines less after the onset of hunting season. Superficially, selecting less pine after onset of hunting could simply point to a seasonal shift away from pine forest (Godwin et al. 1992), but previous authors have noted a strong selection of pine forests by females for roosting and as reproduction began
(Burk et al. 1990, Smith et al. 1990, Thogmartin 1999, Chamberlain et al. 2000). Hence, we would expect males to select roosts in or near these same forests to increase
exposure to females (Miller et al. 2000), particularly as competition amongst males increases prior to laying and incubation (Godwin et al. 1994, Badyaev and Faust 1995, Badyaev et al. 1996, Chamberlain et al. 2018).
Prior to onset of hunting, male turkeys presumably selected roost sites that facilitated access to available females and propagation of calls across the landscape (Parris 2002, Erdtmann and Lima 2013). Conversely, our findings suggest that after hunting began, males exhibited greater
plasticity in selection of roost locations, presumably in response to elevated predation risk associated with hunting
activity. Notably, contemporary literature has demonstrated that gobbling activity declines (Chamberlain et al.
2018, Wightman et al. 2019) and may nearly cease
(Wakefield et al. 2020) in the presence of hunting.
Therefore, we postulate that shifts in roost site selection coupled with low roost site fidelity after the onset of hunting activity are to mediate real or perceived predation risk (Laundré et al. 2010, Ciuti et al. 2012, Coleman and Hill 2014).
A gobbler that had hens ain't going to leave his core area,now a gobbler that don't have hens I'd going to travel looking for love.
I'd love to see more topo maps with roost site pins like the one above. I think that in itself is pretty interesting.
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Quote from: turkeykiller41 on April 12, 2020, 10:38:39 PM
A gobbler that had hens ain't going to leave his core area,now a gobbler that don't have hens I'd going to travel looking for love.
Intuitively, one would think this would be the biologically most efficient reproductive strategy for wild turkeys. However, I have seen numerous instances in a number of different locations where both types of gobblers would end up coming back to the same roost site night after night,...and this is in country where roost sites are everywhere.
Yes, they would often travel a good distance during the day, but then go back to that traditional roost site. Numerous times I have witnessed gobblers (and hens) sprinting back to the roost site at last light, sometimes from hundreds of yards away.
For whatever reason, turkeys in some locations develop an affinity for roosting in the same place ("same place" meaning the same general group of trees) night after night,....and in my experience, that has been more common than what the gobbler cited in the study did. That is why I am surprised by the movement and variation he demonstrated.
It is what it is. It is just a bit surprising to me that subspecies within the same species will have two entirely different survival strategies based on where they have evolved geographically.
Scientist deal with facts and relay their findings accordingly. They know of the variables involved and do not suggest that this finding apply to all turkeys. What new turkey hunters can take from this study beyond the movement of roosts is where those roosts are in accordance to the topography and learn how to approach birds accordingly. Although this is only a rule of thumb it can be used to help put together their pieces of a puzzle.
One thing I noticed just from the topo map was that "majority" of the roost sites were on "fingers" or bottoms that went inward to an internal point or "V". Pretty insightful to see that to know going forward when scouting a property from maps
Quote from: RiverRoost on April 13, 2020, 09:50:59 AM
One thing I noticed just from the topo map was that "majority" of the roost sites were on "fingers" or bottoms that went inward to an internal point or "V". Pretty insightful to see that to know going forward when scouting a property from maps
I think that is instinctual because they are calling hens into 2 bottoms or across 2 bottom areas. Doubling their chances of gobbling one in. I think the same holds true as birds seem to be easier to call to those points or fingers.
The study consisted of 33(20 adults and 13 juvenile) male turkeys that had gps transmitters attached to them(14 in 2017 and 19 in 2018). 4 died or had transmitter malfunction before March 1 2018 so they continued with 29 nine in 2018. The transmitters Recorded locations hourly from 5 am until 10 pm and one roost location at 11:59 pm. The study was conducted from march 1 to april 17 which allowed for readings before and during the the hunting season. It was ended on the 17th because that's when autonomous audio receivers used for a separate study set at known roost and likely roost site locations signaled the end of the breeding season because gobbling activity ceased. The study took place on 2 wma's and the private land surrounding them with the assumption that the private land received less pressure than the adjacent public land. There was a bunch of technical jargon about the parameters of the study that made my eyes glaze over while reading but this basically sums it up. I previously posted the conclusion.
There are a couple big woods that I hunt where the gobblers never roost in the same area two days in a row. They definitely roam ... really, hard to pattern. When you do manage to roost one the night before, they want to be quiet that next morning.