Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Wildlife and Fisheries Resources

Committee Chair

Laura Gigliotti

Committee Member

Michael Peters

Committee Member

Christopher Rota

Abstract

Identifying drivers of variation in the timing of breeding behaviors, such as courtship activities and nesting chronology, is important for the effective management of avian species. Likewise, productivity is an important component of game bird population dynamics and can be broken up into multiple components such as the probability of nesting, clutch size, and nest success. One species that experiences a relatively long reproductive season is the Eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris). Contemporary research in the southeastern United States has raised concerns regarding declines in both wild turkey populations and overall productivity. West Virginia, however, is unique because the state is often included in regional studies in both northern and southern US. The last comprehensive study on Eastern wild turkey hens in West Virgina took place in the early 1990’s; therefore, given contemporary concerns about declines in productivity, the metrics associated with productivity in West Virginia hens may have since changed. The objectives of my research were to evaluate Eastern wild turkey hen productivity and nesting chronology in West Virginia. I trapped turkeys from January – March in 2024 and 2025 using rocket nets and deployed UHF-GPS transmitters to monitor hens (n= 216) for survival and nesting status across four ecoregions in West Virgina. I deployed automated recording units (ARUs) from March – May in 2024 and 2025 to collect data on male gobbling activity. I used generalized linear models to evaluate the effects that individual hen characteristics, landscape variables, and weather have on the probability of nesting, clutch size, and nest success. I used Cox proportional hazard models to evaluate the effect of covariates on the timing of hen nesting activities. Finally, I used a quantile regression to compare the dates of nest initiation from our study with data from the previous West Virginia turkey ‘Hen Study’ and used a cross-correlation analysis to evaluate relationships between gobbling activity and incubation intensity. Across both years, the average probability of nesting was 67%. I found that heavier hens were more likely to attempt a nest and that the precipitation prior to nesting decreased the probability of nesting. Overall nest success was 21% and initial nesting attempts had 20% larger clutch sizes than subsequent attempts in a given year. I found that nest success was greatest during relatively wetter incubation conditions coupled with hens taking fewer recesses away from the nest. I determined that nest incubation occurred approximately 5 days earlier in our study compared to the previous hen study within the state and that gobbling activity followed a multimodal structure across the reproductive season. I found that juvenile hens initiated nests approximately 9 days later than the baseline nesting date (April 25th) and that a 1 mm/day increase in the 90-day average rolling precipitation was associated with nesting occurring approximately 17 days later than the baseline. Overall, identifying the specific characteristics that affect wild turkey productivity and the timing of nesting activities at local levels may help to inform management decisions across a broader regional scale, such as the Appalachian region.

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