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 bet..., Capture and handling We captured female wild turkeys opportunistically in flocks ranging from three to >20 using rocket nets baited with corn from January–March 2014–2019. We aged each individual using the presence of barring on the 9th and 10th primaries (Pelham and Dickson 1992). We fitted all females with a uniquely identifiable aluminum rivet tarsal band and GPS/VHF transmitter (89g; Biotrack Limited, Wareham, Dorset, UK; Guthrie et al. 2011). Transmitters were attached backpack style using marine grade shock cord (3mm), which typically degraded after several years and fell off the birds if they were not recovered dead. We programmed GPS units to collect data at 1-hour intervals (Cohen et al. 2018) between 05:00 to 20:00 daily with one location at night (23:59:58) to identify roosts until the battery died or the unit was recovered. We immediately released individuals at the capture location following processing. Capture, handling, and marking procedures were approved by the Louis...,繁殖时间的协调机制受多种生态与社会生物学过程驱动，广泛存在于各类物种中。东部野生火鸡（Meleagris gallopavo silvestris）采用雄性优势型多配偶交配系统，雄性会在展示位点通过精巧的求偶展示与鸣唱与雌性进行交流。多数雌性倾向于与优势雄性交配，因此可能出现异步繁殖与筑巢现象，这会对繁殖群体内个体的适合度产生不成比例的影响。对于雌性野生火鸡而言，较早筑巢可带来繁殖优势。据此，我们基于筑巢起始时间，对佩戴GPS定位项圈的东部雌性野生火鸡群体内部及群体间的繁殖同步性展开了评估。2014-2019年，我们在路易斯安那州中西部地区研究了30个社会群体，每个群体平均包含7只雌性个体（个体数范围为2-15只）。我们发现，群体内雌性个体首次筑巢起始时间之间的估算天数差异…… 捕获与处理：2014-2019年的1-3月，我们使用以玉米为诱饵的火箭网，在3只至20余只的火鸡群中机会性捕获雌性野生火鸡。依据第9和第10枚初级飞羽的斑纹特征对个体进行年龄鉴定（Pelham与Dickson, 1992）。为所有雌性个体佩戴带有唯一标识的铝制跗跖铆钉环，并安装GPS/VHF发射机（GPS/VHF transmitter，重量89g；英国多塞特郡韦勒姆的Biotrack Limited公司；Guthrie et al., 2011）。发射机以背包式挂载方式固定，使用3毫米船用级弹力绳，该弹力绳通常在数年后降解，若未回收死亡个体，则发射机会随弹力绳脱落。我们将GPS单元设置为每日05:00至20:00期间每小时采集一次定位数据，夜间（23:59:58）额外采集一个定位点以识别栖息位点，直至电池耗尽或设备被回收。处理完成后，我们立即在捕获地点释放个体。捕获、处理与标记程序已获得路易斯安那州……的批准，