Space use and movements during egg laying associated with nest fate and female survival in eastern wild turkeys
Data files
Feb 20, 2026 version files 179.12 KB
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Laying_behavior_models.R
11.71 KB
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Laying_period_covariates.csv
165 KB
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README.md
2.42 KB
Abstract
Reproduction is a fundamental aspect of a species’ life history that is energetically costly, yet critical for population sustainability and genetic diversity. Wild turkeys exhibit high rates of nest loss and female mortality during reproduction, prompting females to make decisions related to spatial and movement decisions during nesting. Using GPS data from eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris), we assessed female movements and space use during laying and evaluated potential impacts of those metrics on nest success and female survival during incubation. We used a Bayesian logistic regression to estimate nest success and female survival based on space use, daily movements, and range overlap with conspecifics during the laying period. We found that with each increase of ~ 700 m in average daily distance traveled during laying, there was a 1.73% decrease in the probability of nest success. We also found that having a greater number of conspecific females with overlapping core areas had a positive influence on nest fate. Specifically, an increase of 1 overlapping female (one standard deviation) was associated with an 4.76% increase in the probability of nest success. Conversely, we found weak support that female survival was positively related to increasing average daily distances traveled. Our findings suggest that female wild turkeys perceive reproductive advantages to sharing space with conspecifics during the laying period. Conversely, our findings suggest that movements of female wild turkeys within their reproductive period may only weakly influence metrics of reproductive success during both laying and incubation.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9p8cz8wz3
Description of the data and file structure
CSV titled Laying_period_covariates.csv includes study sites, year, bird ID, nest attempts, fate (hatched or did not), laying and incubation dates, core area and home range sizes, daily distances traveled, along with overlap in space use metrics.
Variables:
- States include Louisiana (LA), South Carolina (SC), and Georgia (GA)
- Study sites include Western Louisiana (WLA), Webb Center (WEBB), Savannah River Site (SRS), Cedar Creek WMA (CC), BF Grant WMA (BFG), and Southeastern Louisiana (SELA).
- Year is the year the animal was monitored
- ID is the bird's unique identifier
- attempt is nest attempt (1 = first nest, 2 = second, etc.)
- nest_fate is either hatched (1) or failed (0)
- Age includes adults (1) or juveniles (0)
- Core area (CoreArea) and home ranges (HomeRange) are in hectares
- Daily distances (DailyDistance) moved are in meters
- Date_laying is the date the female started laying a clutch
- date_incubation is the date the female started incubating
- date_failure is the date that the nest failed
- Identifier and uniqueID are simply IDs assigned to females
- Capture is the date the female was captured
- End was the date the female was last monitored
- died_nesting is 0 for females who did not die while nesting, whereas 1 means the female died while nesting
- Days_laying is the number of days the female laid eggs
- Overlap_CA notes that the female either did (1) or did not (0) overlap core areas with another female
- overlap_HR notes that the female either did (1) or did not (0) overlap home ranges with another female
- Overlap_CA_HR notes that the female's core area either did (1) or did not (0) overlap the home range of another female
- Survival means the female either did (1) or did not (0) survive
- Overlap_IDs_CA notes how many core areas of other females the female overlapped
- overlap_IDs_HR notes how many home ranges of other females the female overlapped
- overlap_IDs_5090 notes how many home ranges overlapped the core area of the female
All dates in the data file are in month, day, and year format.
Code/software
Program R, version 4.3.1, was used. The code is contained within Laying_behavior_models.R