Habitat Selection of Female Rio Grande Wild Turkey Influenced by Vegetation and Anthropogenic Structures

The Rio Grande wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) is a popular game species throughout the southcentral United States. It has experienced recent population declines in some areas of its distribution, though the cause is not clear. To better understand Rio Grande wild turkey (hereafter, turkey) ecology and inform management, we attached Global Positioning System transmitters to 34 females in 2016 and 2017. We evaluated habitat selection at both the second-order (landscape) and third-order (home range) scale for the breeding season and second-order selection for the nonbreeding season. Our resource selection function (RSF) models evaluated vegetation, management, and anthropogenic development including oil and gas infrastructure and roads. We found that turkey space use was strongly associated with tall woody cover at both the landscape and home range scale during breeding season and at the landscape scale during nonbreeding season. Additionally, turkey space use was negatively related to the density of oil/gas wells at both scales during the breeding season and at the landscape scale during the nonbreeding season. Turkeys also selected areas close to roads at the landscape scale but avoided high traffic roads within their home ranges during the breeding season. Turkey also chose areas that were >24 mo post fire and close to water sources during the breeding season at both scales. Although turkeys exhibited consistent habitat selection patterns throughout the year relative to trees and oil and gas, our results suggest that their habitat requirements in western Oklahoma are seasonally variable. Management for the Rio Grande subspecies of turkey should maintain tree cover that provides roosting and loafing cover, as well as consider the potential negative impacts of oil and gas infrastructure when locating future energy development.(c) 2023 The Society for Range Management. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.