GPS tracking data for: Male mating season range expansion results from an increase in scale of daily movements for a polygynous-promiscuous bird
Data files
Apr 17, 2024 version files 3.28 MB
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Locations2020.csv
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Locations2021.csv
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README.md
Abstract
Males of species with promiscuous mating systems are commonly observed to use larger ranges during the mating season relative to non-mating seasons, which is often attributed to a change in movements related to reproductive activities. However, few studies link seasonal range sizes to variations in daily space use patterns to provide insight into the behavioral mechanisms underlying mating season range expansion. We studied 20 GPS-tagged male wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), a large upland gamebird, during the mating and summer non-mating seasons to test the hypothesis that larger mating season ranges resulted from male wild turkeys expanding the scale of daily movement activities to locate and court females. We delineated mating and non-mating seasons based on the intensity of gobbling, a vocalization tied to courtship behavior, recorded by autonomous recording units distributed across the study area. Mating season ranges were significantly larger than non-mating season ranges. Daily ranges were larger in the mating season, as were distances between roost sites used on consecutive nights. Variance in daily range size was greater in the mating season, but low temporal autocorrelation suggested considerable daily variability in both seasons. We found no evidence that male wild turkeys changed how they distributed daily movements within seasonal ranges, or differences in habitat use, suggesting larger mating season ranges result from male wild turkeys increasing the scale of their daily movements, rather than a systematic shift to a nomadic movement strategy. Likely, the distribution of females is more dynamic and ephemeral compared to other resources, prompting males to traverse larger daily ranges during the mating season to locate and court females. Our work illustrates the utility of using daily movement to understand the behavioral process underlying larger space use patterns.
README: GPS tracking data for: Male mating season range expansion results from an increase in scale of daily movements for a polygynous-promiscuous bird
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rv15dv4fb
Description of the data and file structure
Locations2020.csv - GPS locations for male wild turkeys tracked during the 2020 season.
Locations2021.csv - GPS locations for male wild turkeys tracked during the 2021 season.
N/A: data missing
Fields include:
- DOP: Dilution of precision
- Lat: Latitude
- Lon: Longitude
- GMT_Time: GMT time
- GMT_Date: GMT date
- Animal_ID: The ID for each turkey