Meleagris gallopavo, wild turkey
Snyder, S. A. 1992. Meleagris gallopavo, wild turkey. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/mega
| Abbreviation | Common Name | Scientific Name | Classification | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animals | ||||
| MEGA | wild turkey | Meleagris gallopavo | Life Form: Animals/Bird Kingdom: Animalia Class: Bird Order: Galliformes Family: Phasianidae Genus: Meleagris | Fed. Protected: No Nativity: Native Invasiveness: Noninvasive |
Taxonomy
The currently accepted scientific name for wild turkey is Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus [1]. The six subspecies are distinguished by coloration, size, and distribution [1,18]:
- Meleagris gallopavo ssp. silvestris Vieillot (eastern wild turkey)
- M. gallopavo ssp. osceola Scott (Florida wild turkey)
- M. gallopavo ssp. mexicana (Gould's wild turkey)
- M. gallopavo ssp. merriami Nelson (Merriam's wild turkey)
- M. gallopavo ssp. intermedia Sennett (Rio Grande turkey)
- M. gallopavo ssp. gallopavo (Mexican wild turkey)
Synonyms
- No entry
Other Common Names
turkey
General Distribution
The wild turkey has been successfully introduced in most states outside of its native range and has also been introduced in southern Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba, and southern Ontario [1,8]. It is resident locally from central Arizona and central Colorado to northern Iowa, central Michigan, southern New Hampshire, and southwestern Maine south to southern Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Florida; and since being introduced into the western states, ranges throughout the continental United States and Hawaii [8,18]. The original ranges of subspecies of wild turkey in North America are listed below [18]:
- M. g. ssp. silvestris - most of the eastern and midwestern United States, from southern Ontario south through northern Florida and from the Atlantic Coast to Kansas and Nebraska
- M. g. ssp. osceola - Florida Peninsula
- M. g. ssp. mexicana - north-central Mexico
- M. g. ssp. merriami - Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado
- M. g. ssp. intermedia - Texas, northern Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas
- M. g. ssp. gallopavo - east-central Mexico
States and Provinces
- United States: AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
- Canada: MB, ON, SK
- Mexico
Plant Communities
Wild turkeys predominantly inhabit oak (Quercus spp.) and pine (Pinus spp.)-oak forests across North America [18,21]. They also frequent bottomland hardwood sites such as those dominated by cottonwood and aspen (Populus spp.). In the West wild turkeys use ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)-Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)-oak forests and mature mixed conifer forests [6]. In the Southwest they use pinyon (Pinus spp.)-juniper (Juniperus spp.) types mixed with oak [23]. In the Southeast wild turkeys inhabit loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), slash pine (P. elliottii), and pond pine (P. serotina) forests mixed with hardwoods. They also use baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)-water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) types [24].
Biological Characteristics
Development and Reproduction
- Mating Season - February through April
- Incubation - 28 days; 10 to 13 eggs; precocial young
- Age of Maturity - 1 year, but may not mate until 2 to 3 years of age; polygamous
- Longevity - can live to 10 or 12 years, but 5 years is considered "old"; annual mortality of 50% in a population is common [13,18,21,26]
Predators
Predators of the turkey include humans, coyote (Canis latrans), skunks, weasels, mink (Mustelidae), raccoon (Procyon lotor), opossum (Didephis virginiana), feral dog (Canis commonis), bobcat (Felis rufus), foxes (Vulpes spp., Urocyon spp.), squirrels, chipmunks (Sciuridae), hawks (Buteo spp., Accipiter spp.), raven, crow, magpie (Corvidae), and various snake species [18,21,22].
Habitat
Diet
Wild turkeys eat fruits, seeds, tubers, bulbs, and greens of locally common plants. They also eat animals such as snails, spiders, grasshoppers, millipedes, and salamanders [22]. Grasses are usually important spring foods, while mast and fruits are important during the fall and winter. Poults rely on insects for protein. Some plant food species of the wild turkey include flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), wild cherry (Prunus serotina), black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), hickory (Carya spp.), hawthorn (Crateagus spp.), oak, cottonwood and aspen (Populus spp.), pinyon, juniper, prickly pear (Opuntia spp.), sumac (Rhus spp.), wheat (Triticum aestivum), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), rye (Secale cereale), soybean (Glycine max), paspalum (Paspalum spp.), and panic grass (Panicum spp.) [18,22,23]. Wild turkeys must be near drinking water on a daily basis [26].
Preferred Habitat
The wild turkey occurs in a variety of habitats from bottomland hardwood forests to upland woods and pine forests. These forests must be interspersed with pastures, grasslands, or agricultural land and other openings that can provide feeding, dusting, and brooding habitat [22]. In Oregon, wild turkeys prefer to roost in large ponderosa pines on easterly slopes. They also may roost in logging slash on north slopes between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (610-914 m). In this same part of Oregon, wild turkeys prefer ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir-oak stands in spring and summer, mixed conifer stands in spring and winter, and oak stands in winter [6]. Eastern Texas brooding hens selected low stocked stands with abundant herbaceous cover [5]. In the Black Hills of South Dakota wild turkeys nest in slash and on rock outcrops [20]. In Arizona they will roost in valleys and in ponderosa pines on northerly slopes [23]. In Massachusetts, wild turkeys select agricultural land during winter, where they have a better chance of surviving severe winters than if they remained in the forests [27]. In the fields, wild turkeys can feed on manure.
Cover Requirements
Wild turkeys need mature, open forests (for traveling and seeing predators) interspersed with grassy openings. The amount of openings required by wild turkeys varies from 10 to 25 percent of the total range. Clearings should be spaced so that hens with broods do not have to travel more than 1 to 2 miles (1.6-3.2 km) [22]. Areas considered unsuitable include large tracts of even-aged pine on short rotations, intensely farmed fields, and areas with a lot of human activity. Healy (in Shroeder [22]) estimated that the best cover for poults in the Southeast is a grass and forb mixture 15.7 to 27.6 inches (40-70 cm) tall and with a biomass of 600 to 3,000 kilograms per hectare dry weight. This should be mixed with trees and a 60 to 100 percent cover in the understory. For more detailed habitat suitability index models, see Schroeder [22].
Fire-caused Mortality
Spring fires may destroy nests. Fast-moving fires may kill newly hatched poults, but once wild turkeys can fly, fires are probably not much of a problem; and losses to the population are negligible [15].
Fire Effects on Habitat
Annual prescribed burns in longleaf-wiregrass (Aristida spp.)-bracken fern (Pteridium aquilegia) types of Georgia stimulated the growth of important wild turkey food plants like legumes and panic grass [4]. Following prescribed fires in the Georgia Piedmont, total seed production of desirable food plants increased during postburn year 1 from 6.4 kilograms per hectare to 26.4 kilograms per hectare [7]. Spring, late summer, and winter fires in Texas slash pine plantations seriously reduced mast production but increased fruiting of flowering dogwood [19]. Loblolly pine stands in South Carolina were burned to determine the effects of fire on wild turkeys [8]. One plot, burned every winter for 20 years showed an increase in desired food plants like winged sumac (Rhus copallina), beggartick (Desmodium spp.), and partridge pea (Cassia nictitans). An adjacent plot burned every summer for 20 years and one unburned plot showed little to no value for wildlife.
Fire Regimes
For fire regime information, search FEIS for this species by entering the species name or acronym on the home page and selecting “Fire Regime” as the publication type.
Fire Management Considerations
Prescribed fire can be used to stimulate the growth of food plants and promote early spring green up of grasses [22]. Fire can also reduce litter, exposing seeds and insects; and reduce brush so that turkeys can be wary of predators [14,15,25]. Fire can be used to create edges to increase nesting habitat [25]. It can also reduce parasites such as ticks and lice [16]. Devet and Hopkins [8] recommended burning loblolly-longleaf pine stands every 3 years, and burning every 4 to 6 years in Piedmont regions. For burning recommendations of mast-producing oak species see the desired species in the FEIS database.
Federal Status
None
Other Status
No entry.
Other Management Information
The wild turkey is a popular game species that has been introduced to almost every state outside the limits of its original range [21]. However, it is not very tolerant of human activity and has suffered from urbanization as well as intense farming and conversion of native forest land to pine plantations [11,22]. Wild turkeys are susceptible to domestic poultry diseases [26]. Pesticide spraying to reduce vegetation may temporarily result in decreased turkey use of an area [2].
Wild turkey populations declined following cutting, burning, and chaining of pinyon-juniper types in Arizona [23]. Partially cut units showed only a temporary reduction in turkey use. Where one-third of a large tract (800 ha) was treated, use decreased from 32 percent to 3 percent during summer. These authors recommended that cleared areas be less than 300 feet (90 m) wide and that cover in travel corridors between feeding and roosting areas be maintained.
Table A1— Forest and range ecosystems, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) physiographic regions, Kuchler plant associations, Society for American Foresters (SAF) forest cover types, and Society for Rangeland Management (SRM) rangeland cover types in which this species occurs.
Forest and Range Ecosystems (Garrison et al. 1977)
- FRES12 Longleaf-slash pine
- FRES13 Loblolly-shortleaf pine
- FRES14 Oak-pine
- FRES15 Oak-hickory
- FRES16 Oak-gum-cypress
- FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood
- FRES18 Maple-beech-birch
- FRES19 Aspen-birch
- FRES20 Douglas-fir
- FRES21 Ponderosa pine
- FRES26 Lodgepole pine
- FRES28 Western hardwoods
- FRES31 Shinnery
- FRES32 Texas savanna
- FRES33 Southwestern shrubsteppe
- FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
- FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
- FRES36 Mountain grasslands
- FRES37 Mountain meadows
- FRES38 Plains grasslands
- FRES39 Prairie
- FRES40 Desert grasslands
- FRES41 Wet grasslands
BLM Physiographic Regions (Bernard and Brown 1977)
- 3 Southern Pacific Border
- 4 Sierra Mountains
- 5 Columbia Plateau
- 6 Upper Basin and Range
- 7 Lower Basin and Range
- 8 Northern Rocky Mountains
- 9 Middle Rocky Mountains
- 10 Wyoming Basin
- 11 Southern Rocky Mountains
- 12 Colorado Plateau
- 13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
- 14 Great Plains
- 15 Black Hills Uplift
- 16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands
Kuchler Plant Associations (Kuchler 1964)
- K005 Mixed conifer forest
- K010 Ponderosa shrub forest
- K011 Western ponderosa forest
- K012 Douglas-fir forest
- K016 Eastern ponderosa forest
- K017 Black Hills pine forest
- K018 Pine - Douglas-fir forest
- K019 Arizona pine forest
- K022 Great Basin pine forest
- K023 Juniper - pinyon woodland
- K024 Juniper steppe woodland
- K026 Oregon oakwoods
- K029 California mixed evergreen forest
- K030 California oakwoods
- K031 Oak - juniper woodlands
- K032 Transition between K031 and K037
- K037 Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
- K051 Wheatgrass - bluegrass
- K059 Trans-Pecos shrub savanna
- K061 Mesquite - acacia savanna
- K062 Mesquite - live oak savanna
- K066 Wheatgrass - needlegrass
- K067 Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
- K079 Palmetto prairie
- K080 Marl - Everglades
- K081 Oak savanna
- K083 Cedar glades
- K084 Cross Timbers
- K086 Juniper - oak savanna
- K087 Mesquite - oak savanna
- K090 Live oak - sea oats
- K091 Cypress savanna
- K092 Everglades
- K098 Northern floodplain forest
- K099 Maple - basswood forest
- K100 Oak - hickory forest
- K101 Elm - ash forest
- K102 Beech - maple forest
- K103 Mixed mesophytic forest
- K104 Appalachian oak forest
- K106 Northern hardwoods
- K109 Transition between K104 and K106
- K110 Northeastern oak - pine forest
- K111 Oak - hickory - pine forest
- K112 Southern mixed forest
- K113 Southern floodplain forest
- K115 Sand pine scrub
SAF Cover Types (Eyre 1980)
- 24 Hemlock - yellow birch
- 25 Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
- 28 Black cherry - maple
- 39 Black ash - American elm - red maple
- 40 Post oak - blackjack oak
- 42 Bur oak
- 43 Bear oak
- 44 Chestnut oak
- 52 White oak - black oak - northern red oak
- 53 White oak
- 55 Northern red oak
- 60 Beech - sugar maple
- 63 Cottonwood
- 70 Longleaf pine
- 71 Longleaf pine - scrub oak
- 76 Shortleaf pine - oak
- 78 Virginia pine - oak
- 81 Loblolly pine
- 82 Loblolly pine - hardwood
- 84 Slash pine
- 85 Slash pine - hardwood
- 89 Live oak
- 98 Pond pine
- 102 Baldcypress - tupelo
- 103 Water tupelo - swamp tupelo
- 105 Tropical hardwoods
- 109 Hawthorn
- 210 Interior Douglas-fir
- 217 Aspen
- 220 Rocky Mountain juniper
SRM Rangeland Cover Types (Shiflet 1994)
- No entry
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