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Abstract
Restoration of wild turkeys across North America is one of the most successful conservation efforts, after the species was nearly extirpated in the early 1900’s. However, productivity and abundance of wild turkeys have declined throughout broad areas of the species range, which is occurring simultaneously as natural predators are at an historic apex. Male wild turkeys are not only susceptible to natural predation, but are a highly sought after game bird. Therefore, understanding influences of predation risk on behavior of male wild turkeys can provide valuable insight into turkey ecology and management. Male wild turkeys gobble to attract attention from females, but gobbling also increases predation risk. Notably, gobbling activity is the primary determinant of hunter satisfaction, so it is of interest to management agencies. I developed an efficient method known as a convolution neural network to detect gobbles from ambient sound recordings, reducing time and money associated with collecting and processing gobbling data. Using gobbling and environmental data coupled with location data collected on turkeys, coyotes, and hunters, I investigated how predation risk influenced gobbling activity, movements, and resource selection of male wild turkeys. I found that weather conditions influenced gobbling activity, likely as a result of factors related to predation risk, and noted that harvest and reproduction were the primary drivers of gobbling. I found that gobbling activity varied across the landscape and declined with the onset and progression of hunting. I found no relationship between coyote predicted use and gobbling activity, but did find evidence that gobbling activity increased in areas associated with reduced hunter activity. I determined that although coyotes and turkeys maintained overlapping ranges, fine scale spatial overlap and known contacts were rare. Furthermore, I found known contacts between coyotes and male turkeys had no influence on male movements, and that such contacts occurred closer to forest edges. I observed that contacts between hunters and male turkeys were associated with males increasing movements, and that such contacts occurred closer to secondary roads. These findings suggest that risk of encountering hunters is more impactful to movement ecology of male wild turkeys than encounters with natural predators.