Predicting Spatial Distributions of Mammalian Predation on Translocated Wild Turkeys in Agriculturally Dominated Landscapes

Abstract

Translocating prey into unfamiliar environments may alter predator-prey interactions on space utilization, making prey more vulnerable to predation. We predicted that the greater the edge density of cropland and developed land, the higher the probability of mammalian predation for translocated wild turkeys in the agriculturally dominated landscape of Quitman County in the northcentral Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA. We radio-tracked translocated wild turkeys using transmitters equipped with mortality sensors from January 2009 to July 2010. We applied multivariate ordinations and one-class support vector machines to predict the spatial probabilities and locations of mammalian predation on translocated wild turkeys with data on kill locations and habitat edge densities. Mammalian predation was positively associated with crop field edge density, with kill-location patches constituting about 6% of the study area. Our findings suggest that mammalian predation can decrease the success of wild turkey translocation in unfamiliar, agricultural-dominant habitats.

Keywords

habitat fragmentation / kill locations / machine learning / Meleagris gallopavo / translocation

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2025 The Author(s). Wildlife Letters published by Northeast Forestry University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.