Hurricane effects on wild turkey survival, daily movements, and roost fidelity

Environmental disturbances driven by global climate variability continue to increase in both frequency and intensity. Recent studies on wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) have documented both direct and indirect demographic effects of short-term, climatically driven events; however, only limited information is available on the effects of extreme environmental disturbance events on turkey demography. Thus, we evaluated space use and movements of eastern wild turkeys (M. g. silvestris; n = 20) and Rio Grande wild turkeys (M. g. intermedia; n = 22) during hurricane events in South Carolina and Texas, respectively. Hurricane Matthew occurred over a 3-day period in October 2016 impacting ongoing turkey research on the Webb Wildlife Management Area Complex in South Carolina, whereas Hurricane Harvey occurred over a 5-day period in August 2017 impacting an ongoing 6-county study region in Texas. We documented 1 and 2 direct mortalities during Hurricanes Matthew and Harvey, respectively. Mean core area size used by turkeys decreased by 75% during both hurricane events. We did not document evidence of changes in roost fidelity or distance between daily roost clusters after either hurricane. We documented direct mortality of 5 and 8% of the study population during Matthew and Harvey, respectively, and turkeys exhibited a gradient of behavioral responses dependent on hurricane intensity and duration. Because hurricanes can produce substantive modifications to areas used by wild turkeys, we suggest that managers consider initiatives to document legacy effects of extreme environmental disturbance events on local wild turkey demographics, including loss of nesting, brooding and roosting sites.