Wild turkeys adapt movement to Maine’s winter weather, study shows

Thanksgiving could also be proper across the nook, however Maine’s wild turkeys have extra to fret about than ending up on the kitchen desk. Winter is coming, and with it, extraordinarily chilly temperatures and fewer assets for turkeys to thrive. In keeping with a College of Maine examine, wild turkeys will regulate their actions in inclement winter climate to extend their odds of survival, however their behaviors might change because the local weather continues to heat.

Wild turkeys had been traditionally extirpated from Maine, however because of conservation efforts starting within the Seventies, wild turkey populations have now been restored and are current in each county. At their northern vary restrict in Maine, wintering turkeys typically face excessive low temperatures and scarce assets. Turkeys regulate their actions—for instance, the areas the place they roost at evening—to be able to improve their possibilities of surviving the robust Maine winters.

Understanding how species behave of their northernmost habitats is more and more vital with a altering world. The warming local weather might broaden the northern boundaries of a species’ vary, however can also be linked to the heightened magnitude and incidence of utmost climate occasions that influence an animal’s likelihood of survival.

A crew of UMaine researchers partnered with the Maine Division of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to review how wild turkeys reasonable their motion in Maine over the course of the winter. They deployed GPS transmitters on 59 wild turkeys captured at baited websites between 2018 and 2020. The turkeys had been noticed over all sorts of landscapes, together with business forests, residential areas and agricultural lands. The scientists in contrast how the wild turkeys transitioned between motion states—stationary, cell and roosting—in keeping with native climate, contemplating variables like snow depth and temperature.

The info confirmed that wild turkeys altered their motion in refined, context-specific methods, relying on completely different climate variables. For instance, turkeys had been extra more likely to spend time in a stationary state when temperatures had been colder and snow was deeper. When stationary and roosting, turkeys chosen conifer forests and averted land covers related to foraging, similar to agriculture and residential areas; this was very true throughout poor climate.

“Our outcomes emphasize how winter severity is a limiting issue for turkey populations in Maine, but additionally how turkeys have tailored to outlive these harsh situations. By being versatile about when and the place they transfer, turkeys can preserve vitality when climate is unhealthy and benefit from assets as they grow to be out there. As winter’s get shorter and hotter, we might see these pressures reduce, which could possibly be good for turkey populations.” says Matthew Gonnerman, who performed the analysis for his Ph.D. within the Division of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology on the College of Maine, and is now a postdoctoral researcher on the College of Maryland.

Wild turkeys had been discovered to be versatile of their means to adapt their actions to the altering winter climate situations. The outcomes will inform wild turkey conservation efforts in mild of local weather change, and should present a mannequin for the way the identical may be completed for different species. For instance, wild turkey populations will want habitats with satisfactory shelter to guard them in instances of inclement climate because the warming local weather continues to broaden the higher boundaries of their vary.

“Due to conservation efforts, wild turkey populations are doing very well in Maine. Our work suggests a part of their success pertains to their flexibility in coping with our lengthy Maine winters,” says Erik Blomberg, affiliate professor of wildlife inhabitants ecology within the UMaine Division of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology. “As local weather change continues to change winter situations in Maine, it’ll be very fascinating to proceed monitoring turkey populations and their response.”

The examine was revealed September 2022 within the journal Ecological Functions.