Survival and Nest Success of Female Wild Turkeys in a Louisiana Bottomland Hardwood Forest

We studied survival and nest success of hens, and found that annual survival was 67%.  Lowest survival was during the nesting and brood-rearing seasons, which makes sense.  We found one of the lowest nest initiation rates ever reported in the literature at 33%, meaning most hens never reached the point of incubating a nest.  Our findings suggested that this population was sustainable despite the low production because of the high hen survival, and recommended that the agency seek ways of create and maintain quality nesting habitat as it was quite limited on that site.