Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University Kingsville, 700 University Boulevard, Kingsville, TX, 78363, USA.
USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 LaPorte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 14;10(1):2625. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59543-w.
Depredation of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) nests is a leading cause of reduced recruitment for the recovering and iconic game species. Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are known to depredate nests, and have been expanding throughout the distributed range of wild turkeys in North America. We sought to gain better insight on the magnitude of wild pigs depredating wild turkey nests. We constructed simulated wild turkey nests throughout the home ranges of 20 GPS-collared wild pigs to evaluate nest depredation relative to three periods within the nesting season (i.e., early, peak, and late) and two nest densities (moderate = 12.5-25 nests/km, high = 25-50 nests/km) in south-central Texas, USA during March-June 2016. Overall, the estimated probability of nest depredation by wild pigs was 0.3, equivalent to native species of nest predators in the study area (e.g., gray fox [Urocyon cinereoargenteus], raccoon [Procyon lotor], and coyote [Canis latrans]). Female wild pigs exhibited a constant rate of depredation regardless of nesting period or density of nests. However, male wild pigs increased their rate of depredation in areas with higher nest densities. Management efforts should remove wild pigs to reduce nest failure in wild turkey populations especially where recruitment is low.
破坏野生火鸡（Meleagris gallopavo）巢穴是导致恢复和标志性狩猎物种繁殖率降低的主要原因。众所周知，入侵性野猪（Sus scrofa）会破坏巢穴，并且它们的分布范围已经遍布北美的野生火鸡分布区。我们试图更深入地了解野猪破坏野生火鸡巢穴的程度。我们在 20 只佩戴 GPS 项圈的野猪的栖息地内建造了模拟的野生火鸡巢穴，以评估在 2016 年 3 月至 6 月期间，筑巢季节内的三个时期（早期、高峰期和后期）和两个巢密度（中等= 12.5-25 个/公里，高= 25-50 个/公里）下，对巢穴破坏的相对影响，该研究地点位于美国中南部的得克萨斯州。总体而言，野猪破坏巢穴的估计概率为 0.3，与研究区域内的本地物种巢穴捕食者相当（例如，灰狐（Urocyon cinereoargenteus）、浣熊（Procyon lotor）和郊狼（Canis latrans））。雌性野猪无论筑巢期或巢穴密度如何，都表现出恒定的破坏率。然而，雄性野猪在巢密度较高的地区增加了破坏率。管理工作应清除野猪，以减少野生火鸡种群中巢穴失败的情况，尤其是在繁殖率较低的地区。
