“Turkeys are a highly adaptable species this adaptability facilitated their ability to be restored,” said the study’s lead author Wesley Boone, a postdoctoral research scholar at NC State. Researchers acknowledge there are outstanding questions about the role of weather and climate change, emerging diseases, and other factors on turkeys. North Carolina has a stable population as estimated by hunting harvests, but some southern states have set hunting restrictions in an attempt to stop or reverse declines. However, a recent survey reported wild turkey populations in the southeastern United States have been in decline since 2009. “This could result in ‘phenological mismatch,’ where the timing of an animal’s natural history doesn’t match up with the food and cover resources that are critical for successful reproduction and survival.”Īfter overhunting and habitat loss drove wild turkeys almost to extinction, the species is now common throughout North America. “There are implications here for turkey populations if individuals are inflexible in their ability to shift their reproductive activities, as resources are certainly going to change in the future,” said Chris Moorman, professor in North Carolina State University’s Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology Program. The findings suggest eastern wild turkeys ( Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) could be vulnerable to shifts in climate, which could threaten the availability of their food sources, the amount of vegetation cover available to protect them from predators, and other factors. states are unlikely to make meaningful changes in the timing of when they begin nesting, even under significant future climate change. Laura Oleniacz, NC State News Services new study suggests eastern wild turkeys in five southern U.S.
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