Female Turkey Habitat Use in Mississippi River Batture

Abstract

We determined habitat use by adult eastern wild turkey females (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) in the Mississippi River batture before and after selective thinning of riverfront hardwoods. Thinning reduced basal area from 20.3 to 13.7 m2/ha and decreased canopy closure from 60 to 49%. Midstory density was reduced from 1,421 to 971 stems/ha. One year after treatment mean understory cover increased from 31 to 57%. No nesting occurred because the study area was flooded both springs. Female turkey habitat use changed after thinning; the thinned area received the highest frequency of increased use. An increase in understory cover and hypothesized increase in productivity, particularly of wild turkey food items, apparently were the major attractions for the thinned area. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 52(2):253-260 Some of the largest populations of eastern wild turkeys occurred in the bottomland hardwoods along the Mississippi River (Dickson et al. 1978). This habitat was greatly reduced by extensive conversion to cropland. By 1977, only 20% of the original forest of the lower Mississippi delta remained (U.S. Fish and Wildl. Serv. 1978). Currently, wild turkeys of the Mississippi delta are most abundant in the batture (Hopkins et al. 1980), the land between the river and the flood control levee. Although relatively narrow, the batture along the lower third of the Mississippi River contains approximately 630,000 ha (Lower Mississippi Reg. Comprehensive Stud. Comm. 1974), most of which has not been converted to agricultural production because of seasonal flooding (Frey and Dill 1971). Timber management practices are the primary means for manipulating turkey habitat (Smith 1981). Little information is available on the effects of various forest harvesting methods on habitat use by wild turkeys (Hurst 1981) and immediate effects of a selective thinning (Smith 1986) on wild turkeys in the batture have not been studied. We investigated habitat use by wild turkey females before and after selective thinning of hardwoods in the Mississippi River batture of northeastern Louisiana. Funding for this study was provided by the National Wild Turkey Federation and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries through Louisiana State University. Research was conducted under the auspices of the Louisiana Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and Wildlife Management Institute, cooperating. Access to the study area was granted by International Paper Company and Anderson-Tully Company. This is Contribution 87-22-1310, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station.