We simultaneously tracked toms and turkey hunters on a public hunting area in Louisiana and found that the presence of hunters had little effect on how toms moved. Toms only slightly increased how much they moved during hunting, but they did tend to use smaller core use areas because they were using areas with less risk from hunters. We also found that how toms responded to hunters varied considerably from one bird to the next, and birds that survived the hunting season tended to hang out in areas with high risk from hunters. Our findings suggest that toms that survive hunting learn behaviors that allow them to navigate the risk hunters introduce to their environment.
