Reproductive asynchrony within social groups of female eastern
wild turkeys
Erin E. Ulrey, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Michael J. Chamberlain, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural
Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Bret A. Collier, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State
University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA
Abstract: Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo
silvestris ) exhibit social hierarchies wherein dominance is established
through agnostic interactions within social groups. When dominant
individuals effectively monopolize reproductive opportunities,
asynchronous breeding can occur, which may disproportionately influence
individual fitness within social groups. For females, higher ranked
individuals may witness reproductive advantages associated with earlier
nesting than subordinate conspecifics. We evaluated reproductive
synchrony within and between presumed social groups of GPS-tagged female
eastern wild turkeys by inferring female social rank based on timing of
nest initiation. We examined 30 social groups with an average of 7
females per group (range 2 - 15) during 2014-2019 in west-central
Louisiana. We found that the estimated number of days between first nest
initiation across females within social groups varied between 3-7 days
across years, and the number of days between nest attempts was lower for
successful than failed attempts. Our findings suggest that social
hierarchies may influence reproductive success in female wild turkeys,
and we postulate that social constraints could cause variation in timing
of nest initiation for females within social groups.
Key words: asynchronous, breeding, dominance, Meleagris
gallopavo , nesting, social hierarchies, wild turkey