This Turkey Tuesday is about group size, and why bigger groups matter in the wild turkey world. In southern areas, toms are starting to form breeding groups as they split from winter flocks, and this process will continue to occur over the upcoming weeks in many parts of the species range. Wild turkeys use a form of lekking as part of their mating system, which simply means that toms display together for hens in certain parts of their range. Research has shown that larger groups attract more attention from hens – more toms equate to more gobbling and more show – you can see that both front and back in these images. The bottom line is 4 toms put on a much better show than 2, and 2 is better than one! Interestingly, research has also shown that dominant toms within larger groups breed more hens than single toms and are responsible for more poults than solo toms. It’s been widely thought that members of these groups of toms were mostly related to each other, and therefore kin selection functions in wild turkeys – that is, subordinate toms within these groups would benefit indirectly from helping dominant siblings attract more attention from hens. However, recent research has shown clearly that some groups of toms during breeding season contain birds that are not at all related to each other, which suggests that kin selection may not function uniformly across wild turkey populations. These recent works speak to the complexity in how the wild turkey’s mating system functions, which in many ways makes sense given how many different landscapes turkeys inhabit. The take home is, size matters in the wild turkey world when it comes to the groups of toms we see forming prior to breeding season. Anyone seeing groups of strutting toms?
Pics by Josh Van Ommeren.
