Comparison of Two Techniques for Assessing Invertebrate Availability for Wild Turkeys in Texas

Although the importance of invertebrates to young galliforms has been demonstrated by numerous researchers, few comparisons of techniques designed to assess invertebrate availability for these species have been published. Our objective was to compare suction sampling and sweep-netting as methods for...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Wildlife Society bulletin Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 853 - 855
Main Authors:	RANDEL, CHARLES J, AGUIRRE, RAYMOND B, PETERSON, MARKUS J, SILVY, NOVA J
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-10-2006 The Wildlife Society
Subjects:	Agroecology Animal populations Applied ecology Birds Departments Fisheries science From the Field Habitat conservation Invertebrata invertebrate collection Invertebrates Meleagris gallopavo Meleagris gallopavo intermedia Natural resources conservation Rio Grande wild turkey Sampling suction sampling Surgical suction sweep-net Texas Turkeys Wildlife ecology Wildlife management Texas
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Summary:	Although the importance of invertebrates to young galliforms has been demonstrated by numerous researchers, few comparisons of techniques designed to assess invertebrate availability for these species have been published. Our objective was to compare suction sampling and sweep-netting as methods for evaluating invertebrates available for Rio Grande wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) poults on the Edwards Plateau of Texas, USA. We collected invertebrates via sweep-netting (n = 102) and suction sampling (n = 100) during summers 2002 and 2003 at brood locations. Suction sampling collected the same orders of invertebrates as sweep-netting, but invertebrate dry mass and frequency of occurrence were lower for nearly every order compared to sweep-netting. Suction sampling provided no additional information to that obtained by sweep-netting in the broken grasslands where our study was conducted. For this reason, we believe the additional cost and time required to implement this technique was not warranted for our study areas.
Bibliography:	ark:/67375/WNG-FJ00302L-N ArticleID:WSB4499 istex:7CED28A1F7A5CFC140185590DA0A8B3131AFBC4D Sapphos Environmental, Pasadena, CA 91105, USA Markus J. Peterson is an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University. He received his B.S. from University of Idaho, D.V.M. from Washington State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. He has been an active member of TWS since the 1980s. His research interests include the ecology and management of terrestrial vertebrate populations with an emphasis on factors influencing animal abundance, such as wildlife disease, predation, weather, habitat conditions, and human exploitation. He also has a keen interest in environmental policy formation and implementation. Nova J. Silvy is a regents professor with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Kansas State University and his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University‐Carbondale. He served as president of TWS in 2000–2001 and received the Aldo Leopold Award in 2003. His research focus is upland‐game ecology. Charles J. (C. J.) Randel is a wildlife biologist with Sapphos Environmental in Pasadena, California. He received his B.S. from the University of Nebraska and his M.S. from Texas A&M University. He has been active with The Wildlife Society (TWS) since 2002. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0091-7648 1938-5463
DOI:	10.2193/0091-7648(2006)34[853:COTTFA]2.0.CO;2