Life Sciences Commons^™

Correlation Of Eastern Wild Turkey Poult:Hen Ratios With Population Indices To Detect Reproductive Density Dependence, Jay D. Mcghee, Jim Berkson

Virginia Journal of Science

Knowledge of how density affects population growth is important for the harvest management of wild turkey. Unfortunately, available time-series are often too short for statistical detection of density dependence. The correlation between wild turkey recruitment and population size was assessed using data from 7 state wildlife agencies, circumventing the problem of short time-series by using multiple datasets. Correlation coefficients were calculated between surveyed poult:hen ratios and harvest-based population indices for 31 geographic or harvest management regions. Estimated correlation coefficients were tested for homogeneity to determine if an average correlation could be calculated. Correlation coefficients for the 29 regions ranged from …