Abstract
Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) exhibit social
hierarchies wherein dominance is established through agnostic
interactions within social groups. When dominant individuals effectively
monopolize reproductive opportunities, asynchronous breeding can occur,
which may disproportionately influence individual fitness within social
groups. For females, higher ranked individuals may witness reproductive
advantages associated with earlier nesting than subordinate
conspecifics. We evaluated reproductive synchrony within and between
presumed social groups of GPS-tagged female eastern wild turkeys by
inferring female social rank 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 social groups varied between 3-7 days across years, and the
number of days between nest attempts was lower for successful than
failed attempts. Our findings suggest that social hierarchies may
influence reproductive success in female wild turkeys, and we postulate
that social constraints could cause variation in timing of nest
initiation for females within social groups.