Prospecting during egg laying informs incubation recess movements of eastern wild turkeys

Abstract

Abstract Background Central place foragers must acquire resources and return to the central location after foraging bouts. During the egg laying (hereafter laying) period, females become constrained to a nesting location, and it is postulated that females familiarize themselves with resources available within their incubation ranges. Prospecting behavior allows individuals to obtain knowledge to determine profitable (e.g., resource rich) locations on the landscape.Methods Using GPS data collected from female eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) across the southeastern United States, we determined if prospecting behaviors were occurring during laying and what environmental factors influenced prospecting. We quantified prospecting using movements of females during incubation recesses to locations visited during laying.Results The average proportion of recess movements to previously visited locations was 56.9%. Nest fate was positively influenced by the number of patches (90-m radius buffer around a laying location) a female visited during incubation recesses. Females selected for areas closer to the nest site, secondary roads, hardwood forest, mixed pine-hardwood forest, water, and shrub/scrub, whereas they avoided pine forest and open-treeless areas.Conclusions Our findings suggest that having a diverse suite of patches available to support incubation recesses within an incubation range are impactful to nest fate. This research suggest prospecting could be important to other phenological periods during reproduction. Furthermore, research should evaluate how prospecting for brood-rearing habitat may occur prior to or during the incubation period.