Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo spp., hereafter turkey) are the second most pursued big game species in the United States. Turkey hunting occurs primarily during spring, and on publicly owned lands managers often monitor hunter numbers and harvest as components of managing hunter opportunity and satisfaction. Contemporary research has shown that hunting activity on public lands can influence male turkey behavior; hence, research detailing hunter behaviors is needed to better support informed management. We allocated 1,500 Global Positioning System units to hunters pursuing male turkeys during the spring hunting seasons of 2014–2018 on the Webb Wildlife Management Area Complex in South Carolina, USA. Mean number of unique hunting bouts per hunter per day was 2 (SE = 0.03, range = 1–8), whereas average time spent hunting was 230.1 minutes (SE = 4.6, range = 11.3–872.6)/hunter/day. Hunting effort was focused during the first half of hunting season, with 70.2% of the total time spent hunting occurring during the first 2 weeks of the season (~1–15 Apr). Mean distance a hunter traveled was 2,171 m (SE = 38.1, range = 10–20,685)/hunting bout. Almost 90% of hunting activity occurred between 0500 and 1200, 76% occurred before 1000. Access to roads appeared to be the primary driver of hunter movements, with 40.1% of all hunter locations <25 m from the nearest main or secondary road. On average, hunters were 480 m (SE = 0.5, range = 0–2,132) from main roads that allowed vehicle traffic, but only 123 m (SE = 0.3, range = 0–1,990) from secondary roads allowing only foot traffic. Hunters spent 54.3% of hunting bouts actively hunting and 45.7% stationary. The amount of time spent active decreased as the hunting season progressed. Hunter effort decreased significantly as the hunting season progressed, indicated by a decline in numbers of hunters and total time spent hunting. Understanding how and when turkey hunters move about the landscape is important for effectively managing hunting access and opportunity on public hunting lands. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

No abstract

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 6county 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

No abstract