Pine (Pinus spp.)‐dominated forests are commonly managed with prescribed fire in the southeastern United States to reduce fuel loads, maintain diverse plant communities, and increase habitat quality for wildlife. Prescribed fire alters understory vegetation, which is a key component of nesting habitat for ground‐nesting birds. We assessed the influences of vegetation, prescribed fire, and landscape features (e.g., roads, edge) on nest site selection and nest survival of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) in a pine‐dominated ecosystem in west‐central Louisiana. We radio‐marked 55 female wild turkeys and evaluated vegetation and landscape characteristics associated with 69 nests during the 2014 and 2015 reproductive periods. We used conditional logistic regressions with matched‐pairs case‐control sampling and information‐theoretic approaches to determine if vegetation characteristics within 15 m of a nest site, distances to surrounding vegetation communities and edges, and prescribed fire history of patches where a nest was located influenced nest site selection. We calculated hazard ratios for covariates in our top‐performing models to determine if any of these characteristics affected nest site survival. Turkeys in our study had a longer reproductive season and higher nesting and renesting rates relative to other populations in the southeastern United States. At the local scale, turkeys nested in areas with higher percent ground cover vegetation. At the landscape scale, turkeys nested closer to roads and farther from edges of 2 plant communities. Turkeys selected to nest in forest stands burned 2 years prior. Nest survival was not affected by percent ground cover, distance to roads, or distance to edge but was negatively associated with time‐since‐fire; turkey nests in stands burned ≥3 years prior had lower survival than nests in stands burned the current year. We suggest that burning on a 3‐year fire return interval is compatible with management for wild turkeys in southeastern pine‐dominated forests. © 2017 The Wildlife Society.

Selection of habitats has regularly been suggested to influence species demography at both local and broad scales. The expectation is that selection behaviors have positive benefits via greater fitness or increased survival. The current paradigm of habitat selection theory suggests a hierarchical process, where an individual first selects where they choose to live (e.g., range) and then searches and selects locations within this range meeting life history needs. Using high‐frequency GPS data collected from reproductively active Rio Grande (n = 21) and Eastern (n = 23) wild turkeys, we evaluated a long‐standing theory for ground‐nesting galliformes, in that movements during the prenesting period are behaviorally focused on sampling available habitats to optimize the selection of nesting sites. Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence that reproductively active females engage in habitat sampling activities. Although most nest sites (>80% for both subspecies) fell within the prenesting range, the average minimum daily distance from nest sites for Rio Grande and Eastern wild turkey females was large [1636.04 m (SE = 1523.96) and 1937.42 m (SE = 1267.84), respectively] whereas the average absolute minimum distance from the nest site for both Rio Grande and Eastern wild turkey females was 166.46 m (SE = 299.34) and 235.01 m (SE = 337.90), respectively, and showed no clear temporal reduction as laying approached. Overall, predicted probability that any female movements before laying were initiated intersected with her nesting range (area used during incubation) was <0.25, indicating little evidence of habitat sampling. Our results suggest that the long‐standing assumption of hierarchical habitat selection by wild turkeys to identify nest sites may be incorrect. As such, habitat selection may not be the proximate driver of nest success and hence population‐level fitness. Rather, based on our results, we suggest that wild turkeys and other ground‐nesting species may be fairly plastic with regard to the selection of reproductive habitats, which is appropriate given the stochasticity of the environments they inhabit.

Prescribed fire is widely used in southeastern pine (Pinus spp.) forests to maintain desirable forest conditions and provide early successional vegetation. However, it is unclear how fires applied just prior to and during the reproductive cycle of ground nesting Galliformes influence resource selection. We examined the short-term influence of prescribed fire on habitat selection of female eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) throughout their reproductive cycle (FebÀAug) at Kisatchie National Forest in west-central Louisiana, USA during 2014 and 2015. Kisatchie was dominated (>60%) by pine stands managed with prescribed fire at a frequent (i.e., 1-3 yr) return interval. We captured 46 females and equipped them with backpack-style global positioning system (GPS) transmitters programmed to collect relocation data hourly from 0600 to 2000 each day. We used distance-based analysis to estimate selection or avoidance of vegetation communities relative to reproductive phenology of individual females. Hardwood and mixedpine hardwood vegetation communities were selected for before and after reproductive efforts; hardwood stands were avoided during brooding. While laying their first clutch of the reproductive period, females selected mature pines burned 0-5 months prior. Females avoided mature pine stands 2 growing seasons postburn prior to initiating their first nests. Females avoided mature pine stands 3 growing seasons post-burn when brooding. Turkeys did not select for pine stands that had experienced !3 growing seasons post-burn during any reproductive period, and may avoid these stands during pre-nesting and brooding. Frequent fire return intervals maintain vegetation communities that females select at some point during the reproductive season in pine-dominated landscapes. Ó 2017 The Wildlife Society.

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