Factors influencing eastern wild turkey population growth in northeastern South Dakota

Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) in northeastern South Dakota appeared to be expanding soon after reintroduction in the 1990s; however, recent hunter success trends suggest a population decline in this region. While the cause of the apparent decline was unclear, out of an abundance of caution, managers closed the fall either-sex hunting season throughout much of the region in 2014. An investigation into the factors driving population growth within this system is needed to determine the most effective management strategies for increasing abundance. We incorporated age-class-specific estimates of female survival and lower-level reproductive parameters into a female-only, 2-stage pre-breeding birth-pulse model to project the population growth rate. Additionally, we performed perturbation analyses and conducted a life-stage simulation analysis (LSA) to assess the impact of each demographic parameter on population growth. The finite rate of change indicates this populati..., , , # Factors influencing eastern wild turkey population growth in northeastern South Dakota

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx82](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx82)

## Description of the data and file structure

We obtained published means and 95% confidence intervals of vital rates for female eastern wild turkeys in northeastern South Dakota from Tyl et al. 2020 and Tyl et al. 2023. We simulated 3,000 values of each vital rate from these published estimates and import these into a 2-stage matrix projection model to summarize the age-structured variation in demographic rates for female turkeys in northeastern South Dakota. We estimated the finite rate of population change for each model iteration and conducted perturbation analyses (i.e., elasticity analysis, LSA) to determine which vital rates had the greatest impact on population growth. 

### Files and variables

#### File: PublishedParams.csv

**Description:** published age-class specific vital rates (i.e., annual survival,...,