BIOLOGICAL DATA AND HABITAT REQUIREMENTS
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Meleagris gallopavo | Wild Turkey 



TIMING OF MAJOR LIFE HISTORY EVENTS : 
Mating Season - February through April
Incubation - 28 days; 10 to 13 eggs; precocial young
Age of Maturity - 1 year, but may not mate until 2 to 3 years of age;
                  polygamous
Longevity - can live to 10 or 12 years, but 5 years is considered "old";
            annual mortality of 50% in a population is common
[13,18,21,26]


PREFERRED HABITAT : 
The wild turkey occurs in a variety of habitats from bottomland hardwood
forests to upland woods and pine forests.  These forests must be
interspersed with pastures, grasslands, or agricultural land and other
openings that can provide feeding, dusting, and brooding habitat [22].
In Oregon, wild turkeys prefer to roost in large ponderosa pines on
easterly slopes.  They also may roost in logging slash on north slopes
between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (610-914 m).  In this same part of Oregon,
wild turkeys prefer ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir-oak stands in spring and
summer, mixed conifer stands in spring and winter, and oak stands in
winter [6].  Eastern Texas brooding hens selected low stocked stands
with abundant herbaceous cover [5].  In the Black Hills of South Dakota
wild turkeys nest in slash and on rock outcrops [20].  In Arizona they
will roost in valleys and in ponderosa pines on northerly slopes [23].
In Massachusetts, wild turkeys select agricultural land during winter,
where they have a better chance of surviving severe winters than if they
remained in the forests [27].  In the fields, wild turkeys can feed on
manure.


COVER REQUIREMENTS : 
Wild turkeys need mature, open forests (for travelling and seeing
predators) interspersed with grassy openings.  The amount of openings
required by wild turkeys varies from 10 to 25 percent of the total
range.  Clearings should be spaced so that hens with broods do not have
to travel more than 1 to 2 miles (1.6-3.2 km) [22].  Areas considered
unsuitable include large tracts of even-aged pine on short rotations,
intensely farmed fields, and areas with a lot of human activity.  Healy
(in Shroeder [22]) estimated that the best cover for poults in the
Southeast is a grass and forb mixture 15.7 to 27.6 inches (40-70 cm)
tall and with a biomass of 600 to 3,000 kilograms per hectare dry
weight.  This should be mixed with trees and a 60 to 100 percent cover
in the understory.  For more detailed habitat suitability index models,
see Schroeder [22].


FOOD HABITS : 
Wild turkeys eat fruits, seeds, tubers, bulbs, and greens of locally
common plants.  They also eat animals such as snails, spiders,
grasshoppers, millipedes, and salamanders [22].  Grasses are usually
important spring foods, while mast and fruits are important during the
fall and winter.  Poults rely on insects for protein.  Some plant food
species of the wild turkey include flowering dogwood (Cornus florida),
wild cherry (Prunus serotina), black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), hackberry
(Celtis occidentalis), hickory (Carya spp.), hawthorn (Crateagus spp.),
oak, cottonwood and aspen (Populus spp.), pinyon, juniper, prickly pear
(Opuntia spp.), sumac (Rhus spp.), wheat (Triticum aestivum), alfalfa
(Medicago sativa), rye (Secale cereale), soybean (Glycine max), paspalum
(Paspalum spp.), and panic grass (Panicum spp.) [18,22,23].  Wild
turkeys must be near drinking water on a daily basis [26].


PREDATORS : 
Predators of the turkey include humans, coyote (Canis latrans), skunks,
weasels, mink (Mustelidae), raccoon (Procyon lotor), opossum (Didephis
virginiana), feral dog (Canis commonis), bobcat (Felis rufus), foxes
(Vulpes spp., Urocyon spp.), squirrels, chipmunks (Sciuridae), hawks
(Buteo spp., Accipiter spp.), raven, crow, magpie (Corvidae), and
various snake species [18,21,22].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
The wild turkey is a popular game species that has been introduced to
almost every state outside the limits of its original range [21].
However, it is not very tolerant of human activity and has suffered from
urbanization as well as intense farming and conversion of native forest
land to pine plantations [11,22].  Wild turkeys are susceptible to
domestic poultry diseases [26].  Pesticide spraying to reduce vegetation
may temporarily result in decreased turkey use of an area [2].

Wild turkey populations declined following cutting, burning, and
chaining of pinyon-juniper types in Arizona [23].  Partially cut units
showed only a temporary reduction in turkey use.  Where one-third of a
large tract (800 ha) was treated, use decreased from 32 percent to 3
percent during summer.  These authors recommended that cleared areas be
less than 300 feet (90 m) wide and that cover in travel corridors
between feeding and roosting areas be maintained.


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Meleagris gallopavo | Wild Turkey