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Abstract
Understanding individual variation in behavior is a core focus of behavioral ecology and holds important implications for wildlife management. While most studies have examined behavioral traits in species that are easily observed, movement data provides a powerful alternative for elusive species like wild turkeys, enabling researchers to link individual differences in behavior to fitness in natural settings. In this dissertation, I investigate how individual differences in movement behavior influences susceptibility to natural and human-induced mortality, with a focus on wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). Using GPS data from multiple populations, I examined how individuals differ in both their average behavioral expression and the predictability of their behavior and related these sources of variation to fitness outcomes. In Chapter 2, I investigated how hunters and natural predators influence selection on behavioral types in male wild turkeys. Predators consistently selected against riskier behaviors across populations, whereas selection by hunters was more variable, emphasizing the context-dependent nature of harvest-induced selection. In Chapter 3, I used a double hierarchical modeling framework to quantify differences in predictability to explore whether hunters and predators select for more predictable individuals. I showed that more predictable individuals were more likely to die from both harvest and predation, suggesting that reduced behavioral flexibility may decrease survival in male wild turkeys. In Chapter 4, I shifted focus to females and examined whether behavioral types that use human-modified areas experience fitness benefits. Females that occurred closer to human activity showed greater survival and reproductive success compared to those in predator-associated habitats, providing support for the human-shield-hypothesis. In Chapter 5, I examined the role of site familiarity in male wild turkeys and how it influences survival under harvest and predation. I found evidence of a trade-off, where males that remained closer to familiar areas had greater chances of surviving harvest but faced an increased likelihood of predation. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that behavioral type and predictability interact with landscape features and human activity to shape fitness outcomes in wild turkeys. This work underscores the evolutionary consequences of behavior and highlights the need for management strategies that account for behavioral heterogeneity within wildlife populations