Abstract
Depredation of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) nests is a leading cause of reduced recruitment for the recovering and iconic game species. Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are known to depredate nests, and have been expanding throughout the distributed range of wild turkeys in North America. We sought to gain better insight on the magnitude of wild pigs depredating wild turkey nests. We constructed simulated wild turkey nests throughout the home ranges of 20 GPS-collared wild pigs to evaluate nest depredation relative to three periods within the nesting season (i.e., early, peak, and late) and two nest densities (moderate = 12.5-25 nests/km2, high = 25-50 nests/km2) in south-central Texas, USA during March–June 2016. Overall, the estimated probability of nest depredation by wild pigs was 0.3, equivalent to native species of nest predators in the study area (e.g., gray fox [Urocyon cinereoargenteus], raccoon [Procyon lotor], and coyote [Canis latrans]). Female wild pigs exhibited a constant rate of depredation regardless of nesting period or density of nests. However, male wild pigs increased their rate of depredation in areas with higher nest densities. Management efforts should remove wild pigs to reduce nest failure in wild turkey populations especially where recruitment is low.
Highlights
Generalist invasive species negatively impact native species by both consuming and competing with the native species for resources[1,2]
Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) are an iconic game species in the United States that were brought to near extinction from overexploitation during the 19th century[25,26]
From the 52 nests monitored with cameras, we identified 6 wildlife species that depredated nests, including wild pigs, gray foxes, raccoons, coyotes, striped skunks, and a nine-banded armadillo
Summary
Generalist invasive species negatively impact native species by both consuming and competing with the native species for resources[1,2]. Over the past 3 decades wild pigs have rapidly expanded their range from 18 to 35 of the 50 United States[6], because of their generalist nature and continued translocation by humans[7,8,9,10] In their expanded range, wild pigs have the potential to triple their population every 5 years in the absence of control efforts[10], leading to detrimental effects on native species[4]. This aggregation makes wild turkey nests vulnerable to predators that actively seek nests in habitat where nesting is most likely to occur[29,30] For this reason, it has been suggested that removing wild pigs may increase wild turkey recruitment[31]. Our results will inform efforts to mitigate the impacts of wild pigs on wild turkeys
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