Knowledge of chick survival rates is required to develop species-specific habitat-survival relationships. We determined pre-flight daily survival of Rio Grande Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) chicks from hatching to time of tree roost at four sites in southwestern Kansas and the Texas Rolling Plains, May-August, 2000 and 2001. One-hundred twenty-three chicks from 39 broods were equipped with cyanoacrylate-attached transmitters. The first day of brood tree-roost ranged from 9-16 d after hatching. Chick survival to 16 d of age ranged from 0.11 to 0.67. One-hundred percent of mortalities in 2000 and 70% of mortalities in 2001 for chicks 0-16 d old occurred <10 d after hatching. Survival at two of four sites was higher for 10-16 d-old chicks than 0-9 d-old chicks. Combining different survival periods may cause biased results when examining habitat-survival relationships.
- Meleagris gallopavo