Food Habit Trends of the Wild Turkey in Missouri as Determined by Dropping Analysis

Abstract

Food habit studies of our native and introduced gallinaceous birds in the past have been based largely upon the contents of crops and gizzards. For upland game species like the bob-white quail, the ruffed grouse, and the ringnecked pheasant, much crop material continues to be available, but it is difficult to collect many specimens representing each month over a period of several years. For the eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris), it is doubtful whether an adequate and complete food habit study can ever be made on the basis of stomach analyses alone, because of its rather scattered distribution