背景:中心位置觅食者必须获得资源并在觅食后返回中心位置。在产卵(以下简称产卵)期间,雌性被限制在巢穴位置,因此,在选择巢穴后,他们必须熟悉其孵化范围内可用的资源。个人使用勘探行为来获取知识和识别有利可图的(例如,资源丰富)景观上的位置会影响人口结果。因此,勘探已用于评估各种物种在繁殖之前和繁殖期间的巢穴质量。
方法:使用从美国东南部东部雌性野火鸡(Meleagrisgallopavosilvestris)收集的GPS数据,我们评估了铺设过程中是否发生了勘探行为,以及影响勘探的土地覆盖因素。具体来说,我们使用聚类分析和返回频率(例如,凹陷运动)在孵育期间聚集的铺设斑块(围绕聚集的铺设期位置的150米直径缓冲液)。
结果:凹陷运动与探视位置的平均比例为56.9%。在孵化期间访问的雌性斑块(围绕聚集的产卵期位置的直径为90m的缓冲区)的数量对巢的命运产生了积极影响(后验分布的μ,具有95%的可信度0.19,0.06-0.37,方向概率=99.8%)凹陷。在靠近巢穴的区域选择雌性,二级公路,硬木森林,松木混合林,水,和灌木/灌木丛,而他们避开了松树林和没有树木的地区。
结论:我们的研究结果表明,拥有一套不同的成簇的铺层斑块来支持孵化凹陷对巢穴的命运有影响。因此,在孵化过程中,预计地点内的当地条件可能是野生火鸡成功繁殖的关键。我们建议勘探对其他物候期可能很重要。此外,未来的研究应评估在潜伏期之前或期间如何进行育巢地点的勘探。
BACKGROUND: Central place foragers must acquire resources and return to a central location after foraging bouts. During the egg laying (hereafter laying) period, females are constrained to a nest location, thus they must familiarize themselves with resources available within their incubation ranges after nest site selection. Use of prospecting behaviors by individuals to obtain knowledge and identify profitable (e.g., resource rich) locations on the landscape can impact demographic outcomes. As such, prospecting has been used to evaluate nest site quality both before and during the reproductive period for a variety of species.
METHODS: Using GPS data collected from female eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) across the southeastern United States, we evaluated if prospecting behaviors were occurring during laying and what landcover factors influenced prospecting. Specifically, we quantified areas prospected during the laying period using a cluster analysis and the return frequency (e.g., recess movements) to clustered laying patches (150-m diameter buffer around a clustered laying period location) during the incubation period.
RESULTS: The average proportion of recess movements to prospected locations was 56.9%. Nest fate was positively influenced (μ of posterior distribution with 95% credible 0.19, 0.06-0.37, probability of direction = 99.8%) by the number of patches (90-m diameter buffer around a clustered laying period location) a female visited during incubation recesses. Females selected for areas closer to the nest site, secondary roads, hardwood forest, mixed pine-hardwood forest, water, and shrub/scrub, whereas they avoided pine forest and open-treeless areas.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that having a diverse suite of clustered laying patches to support incubation recesses is impactful to nest fate. As such, local conditions within prospected locations during incubation may be key to successful reproductive output by wild turkeys. We suggest that prospecting could be important to other phenological periods. Furthermore, future research should evaluate how prospecting for brood-rearing locations may occur before or during the incubation period.