Reproductive asynchrony within social groups of female eastern wild turkeys

Coordination in timing of reproduction is driven by multiple ecological
and sociobiological processes for a wide array of species. Eastern wild
turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) use a male dominance polygynous
mating system, where males communicate with females via elaborate
courtship displays and vocalizations at display sites. Most females prefer
to mate with dominant males, therefore asynchronous breeding and nesting
may occur which can disproportionately influence individual fitness within
breeding groups. For female wild turkeys, there are reproductive
advantages associated with earlier nesting. As such, we evaluated
reproductive synchrony within and between groups of GPS-tagged female
eastern wild turkeys based on timing of nest initiation. We examined 30
social groups with an average of 7 females per group (range 2-15) during
2014-2019 in west central Louisiana. We found that the estimated number of
days between first nest initiation across females within groups varied
between 3-7 days across years, although we expected 1-2 days to occur
between successive nesting attempts of females within groups based on
observations of captive wild turkeys in the extant literature. The number
of days between successive nest attempts across females within groups was
lower for successful than failed attempts, and nests with an average of
2.8 days between initiation of another nest were more likely to hatch. Our
findings suggest that asynchronous reproduction may influence reproductive
success in female wild turkeys.