DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxdm0
title: Female biased offspring sex ratios of eastern wild turkeys across the southeastern United States

description: Prevailing theory suggests that sex ratios of offspring at birth should
 not differ from parity if costs of producing offspring of both sexes are
 similar. However, offspring sex ratios may deviate from parity when there
 is sex specific variation in fitness returns. We assessed offspring sex
 ratios of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) across the
 southeastern United States by molecular determination of sex from eggshell
 membranes of hatched clutches. Our objective was to evaluate whether
 offspring sex ratios differed from parity and to examine potential drivers
 of variation in offspring sex ratios across and within our study sites. We
 sexed 724 offspring from 83 nests using molecular markers and identified
 278 males and 446 females, with a sex ratio of 38% male. We found that
 offspring sex ratios were biased towards females on 3 hunted study sites
 but did not differ from parity at our remaining non-hunted site.
 Specifically, on sites with spring hunting, where male mortality was
 increased due to harvest, the probability of producing male offspring was
 47% lower than on our non-hunted site. Our findings suggest that female
 wild turkeys may adaptively adjust the sex ratio of their offspring based
 on predictable, sex specific mortality, favoring the sex with higher
 survival, thereby enhancing their lifetime fitness. Our results provide
 insights into reproductive strategies of wild turkeys and the influence of
 hunting on sex ratios in Galliform offspring. 
description: # Female biased offspring sex ratios of eastern wild turkeys across the
 southeastern United States Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxdm0](10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxdm0) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Analysis of offspring sex ratios of eastern wild
 turkeys by molecular determination of sex from eggshell membranes of
 hatched clutches. ### Files and variables #### File: OSR_Code.R
 **Description:** R code for offspring sex ratio analysis and hidden markov
 model  #### File: All_Eggshells_SexID_10.csv **Description:** input for
 offspring sex ratio analysis  ##### Variables * ID: unique identifier for
 each nest offspring belonged to * clientSampleid: unique identifier for
 each offspring * Sex: sex of offspring, either male (1) or female (0) *
 State: state where nests were located * Site: study site where nests were
 located * SRS = Savannah River Site * GA = Georgia * WLA = west Louisiana
 * SELA = southeast Louisiana  * Year: year of which collection occurred *
 age: Age of incubating mother, either juvenile (0) or adult (1) *
 Date_Laying: Date that the nest was initiated * Total_Offspring: clutch
 size of nest * Hunted_Site: indicates if nest was located on a hunted site
 (1) or non-hunted site (0) * BehaviorState1.2: percentage spent in
 combined stationary and restricted behavioral state  #### File:
 Dryad_GPS_Data_FemalE**_**010925.csv **Description:** input for Hidden
 Markov Model analysis ##### Variables * X: number of entries * DOP:
 dilution of precision for GPS locations * Lat: Latitude of GPS locations *
 Longitude: Longitude of GPS locations * Site: study site for each
 individual  * GMT_Time: Greenwhich Mean Time for GPS location * GMT_Date:
 Greenwich Mean Time of date for GPS location * LMT_Date: Local Mean Time
 of date for GPS location * LMT_Time: Local Mean Time for GPS location *
 ID: Unique identifier for each female * Phase: Reproductive phase for each
 female * Year: Year of gps data collection * DateTime: Local Mean Time and
 Date in mm/dd/yyyy H:M format ## Code/software RStudio  packages: 
 library(ggplot2) library(tidyverse) library(tidyr) library(dplyr)
 library(lubridate) library(lme4) library(bayestestR) library(pROC)
 library(easystats) library(brms) library(sf) library(dplyr)
 library(splitstackshape) library(momentuHMM) library(adehabitatLT)
 library(lubridate) library(readr) library(stringr) library(hms)