Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
The eastern subspecies of the wild turkey has been in a sharp decline over the last decade or so. Not telling anyone something they don’t know. Been listening to some podcasts with biologists and man what an uphill battle this bird faces. Habitat loss/transformation, predators, wet springs, etc.
Seeing as we are members of a habitat board I’m sure we are all cognizant of that aspect. We can’t theoretically do anything about wet springs and honestly that is an odd occurrence in terms of population dynamics anyway. So that leaves predators. Fantastic episode of the meateater podcast came out Monday with a researcher from UGA who is an amazing source of information. I will spare the details (but you should really listen, also land and legacy has some from the nwtf convention that are really informative), but essentially a lot of things want to eat a turkey!
As stewards what is our role with predators (again a hypothetical). Most of us don’t have a problem killing a coyote or coon or possum or even a fox. Honestly after learning black snakes are death to a turkey nest I killed two the other day on my place that would normally get a pass. But how about birds of prey? Apparently owls are hell on a gobbler. This researcher said they would routinely kill mature gobblers off the roost. Usually several a year. Why are owls and hawks beyond reproach when we are faced with a real numbers issues in regards to this bird? Im not a birds of prey expert but I don’t think there is a shortage. Where do we draw the line? Just curious peoples opinions on this matter.
*caveat I’m not advocating shooting birds of prey, I know it’s illegal!
Seeing as we are members of a habitat board I’m sure we are all cognizant of that aspect. We can’t theoretically do anything about wet springs and honestly that is an odd occurrence in terms of population dynamics anyway. So that leaves predators. Fantastic episode of the meateater podcast came out Monday with a researcher from UGA who is an amazing source of information. I will spare the details (but you should really listen, also land and legacy has some from the nwtf convention that are really informative), but essentially a lot of things want to eat a turkey!
As stewards what is our role with predators (again a hypothetical). Most of us don’t have a problem killing a coyote or coon or possum or even a fox. Honestly after learning black snakes are death to a turkey nest I killed two the other day on my place that would normally get a pass. But how about birds of prey? Apparently owls are hell on a gobbler. This researcher said they would routinely kill mature gobblers off the roost. Usually several a year. Why are owls and hawks beyond reproach when we are faced with a real numbers issues in regards to this bird? Im not a birds of prey expert but I don’t think there is a shortage. Where do we draw the line? Just curious peoples opinions on this matter.
*caveat I’m not advocating shooting birds of prey, I know it’s illegal!