Eastern roost study

[Paulmyr]

Well I guess you have to forgive us "little boys" because our library is not as extensive as yours.

[LaLongbeard]

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.

[Paulmyr]

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!

[GobbleNut]

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. 

[Paulmyr]

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.

[Paulmyr]

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.

[Paulmyr]

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).

[turkeykiller41]

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.

[aclawrence]

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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[GobbleNut]

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.

[Ctrize]

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.

[RiverRoost]

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

[g8rvet]

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. 

[Paulmyr]

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.

[brittman]

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.