The Latest Turkey Research
Gobbler Kidnappers
Editor’s
Note: What have scientists learned about turkeys and
turkey habitat that can help us understand turkeys better,
learn how to provide better habitat for them and find
out why and when they gobble? State conservation agencies
across the United States currently have
conducted research projects in these areas with the
help of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF),
the federal government and other conservation organizations.
To learn the latest information, we’ve talked
with Tom Hughes, senior wildlife biologist for the NWTF
(www.nwtf.org).
Currently, Virginia’s conducting a research project
to find out who’s taking the state’s gobblers.
When turkey populations decline, and coyote populations
increase, the song dogs generally get the rap for gobbler-nabbing.
A new study examines the mortality rate of Virginia’s
gobblers by banding and radio-collaring turkey gobblers
to keep up with these turkeys’ movement patterns
and uncover who or what’s taking the toms. Have
the missing turkeys died of natural causes? Have predators
killed them? Or, have turkey hunters bagged most of
the turkeys?
“There have been studies in the past indicating
that hunters are taking more turkey gobblers than biologists
originally have thought they’re harvesting,”
Hughes emphasizes. “Research animals are so valuable,
and the technology and the manpower required to keep
up with wild turkeys is so expensive that in
most research studies, more than one specific type of
information is gathered.
“For instance, another really-fascinating part
of the tagging and the radio-collaring study being conducted
in Virginia is the data logger, a band and a radio collar
that have been attached to each turkey. This data logger
is sensitive to sound and vibration and records each
time the turkey gobbles. By correlating that information
with known facts, including the weather conditions,
the time of day and the turkey’s location, we’re
hoping to get a better insight into what makes turkeys
gobble, and what conditions trigger a turkey’s
gobble – new information we’ve never had
previously.
“Sometimes observers will be at the locations
where the radioed turkeys are showing-up. By watching
the birds with binoculars, they’ll gather even
more information from their visual sightings to learn
what makes turkeys gobble. This very-intensive study
has the potential to tell us more about where turkeys
go and when and why they gobble when they get there
than any information we’ve ever gathered. In another
part of this study, researchers are flushing these turkeys
late in the evening and recording their gobbling the
next morning to see how disturbing a turkey before he
goes to his roost affects how much he gobbles the next
morning. We hope to add tremendously to our knowledge
of wild turkeys from this study.”
Tomorrow: The Role that Habitat and Predators Play
in Turkey-Nesting Success
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