Wild Turkey population is tanking across most of its range

Howboutthemdawgs said:
I’m taking 60 acres of row crop out of production after this season. I’m going to convert maybe 10 acres to food plot. The balance will be early succession. I know it’s a bit away but I hope my efforts will be rewarded for turkeys and quail.

And this ground is broken in a couple different fields so not just one big field. I feel like that’s better for wildlife than one field.
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That sounds awesome. Got any satellite images of the area? I would love to talk you in to doing a wheel and spoke plot with early succession between!
 
omicron1792 said:
Could it have been the big cicada event last year? Heard it would be a banner few years after that.
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We didnt have any cicadas - but a huge grasshopper event. There is also the question of what all of a sudden happened that so many poults hatched. I cant remember when the grasshoppers really got thick - it may have been during poult hatch time and all the coons and crows were full of grasshoppers at that time.
 
Depends on what you're discing to start with. A blanket of fescue will need more than a single light pass. A stand of giant ragweed might be perfect for a light pass. I disc and brushog to create different plant populations and regrowth. At quail level (less than a foot) I want some open understory with cover above, as well as easy to run through open spaces that grow seeding plants and house bugs. Flowers are important. If you have flowers you'll have bugs and seeds.
 
SwampCat said:
Yes - that is referencing the early embryonic death study I was speaking of. Although 85 to 90% of non predated eggs are hatching - that seems like a pretty good percentage to me. I guess every egg matters
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They're also trying to determine why it could be that 70% of some fertilized eggs experienced the early embryonic death.
 
I imagine they are wondering if a situation like DDT and the bald eagle is going on. Very interesting.

Many of these states had turkey populations that were extinct and then repopulated. I wonder if the species just reached a carrying capacity and is leveling out.
 
omicron1792 said:
I imagine they are wondering if a situation like DDT and the bald eagle is going on. Very interesting.

Many of these states had turkey populations that were extinct and then repopulated. I wonder if the species just reached a carrying capacity and is leveling out.
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I wondered the exact same thing! Not uncommon for something to explode and then tapper back to carrying capacity. Locally there were no turkeys when I was growing up, then they exploded on the scene and now aren't as numbered as before. Prairie chickens are a completely different story though. They were always here then over the course of a few yrs declined drastically. Quail seem to fluctuate from yr to yr.
 
In my state - when I started turkey hunting here in 1980 - there were a lot of turkeys in the area I was hunting. The rest of the state was going through restocking efforts with a lot of the turkeys coming from the area I lived and hunted in - where they had been established for a long time. While the turkey population was exploding across the rest of the state, it was declining in the original area. In fact, enough so to warrant one of the first turkey studies to determine why they were declining in mid 90’s. By 2003, they had come back with a vengeance in that area - enough where hunters set the all time harvest record.
 
I don't think people recognize how many nest predators there are. If you don't have coons and possums, another predator fills that niche. Then once the eggs hatch there are a whole other group of predators to eat poults, AND weather factors in.

I think the disease factor needs further assessment, but the other legs of the stool are more nuanced as well.
 
Dad and I pulled into my new food plot to do some burn preparations yesterday and there were 9 toms, 4 jakes, and 32 hens in it and it is only going to get better.


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Stubborn1VT said:
I don't think people recognize how many nest predators there are. If you don't have coons and possums, another predator fills that niche. Then once the eggs hatch there are a whole other group of predators to eat poults, AND weather factors in.

I think the disease factor needs further assessment, but the other legs of the stool are more nuanced as well.
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More and more research seems to be directed towards things other than just nest predation. While the preponderance of existing research indicates lack of nest success due to predation is the number one cause for declining turkey populations, we have proven that us humans are not going to reduce nest predators, at any scale, to effect a wholesale increase in nesting success.

Other things may be easier to address - disease MIGHT be treated with medicated supplemental feed. Aflatoxin could be diminished by banning baiting. In many areas, it might not take but just a slight increase in nesting success to get poult numbers going in another direction.

We know habitat improvement would help, but we will probably never see a wholesale across the landscape improvement in habitat. Pockets of improved habitat or predator reduction are not going to improve turkey numbers other than in those isolated areas.

In one way, it is disturbing that the decline is so widespread - but with it being so widespread, it means more research in more places - a better chance of turning up something. And you see a lot of these newer studies branching out and investigating things that have not yet been looked at in depth.
 
Stubborn1VT said:
I don't think people recognize how many nest predators there are. If you don't have coons and possums, another predator fills that niche. Then once the eggs hatch there are a whole other group of predators to eat poults, AND weather factors in.

I think the disease factor needs further assessment, but the other legs of the stool are more nuanced as well.
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I agree, I was surprised how fruitful it was to trap nest predators on our place the first time we tried.

I do wonder how much of nest predation is really scavenging after the hen was already displaced. I’m sure there are some aggressive raccoons that want to scrap with hens, not sure how common that is compared to bobcats, coyotes, bears, etc that bump hens that may never return.


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Here we tend to thing think Racoon. But it's racoon, possum, fisher, skunk, fox, coyote, crows, blue jays, dogs.... bears aren't common enough and we don't have any snakes large enough.
 
Western Iowa (Loess Hills) is arguably the best turkey hunting in the US . I’ve hunted on my farm 3-4 times, I think only once we had to go to a second day .

Last year we filled out 3-3 the first day with big birds . It’s just perfect habitat for turkeys—rolling hills, oaks, cedars, pasture, big crop field, small tucked away fields. They love it !

I’m not sure why the survival is so good, but I see 25-75 turkeys every time I’m there … or more .

Some pics
 

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bwoods11 said:
Western Iowa (Loess Hills) is arguably the best turkey hunting in the US . I’ve hunted on my farm 3-4 times, I think only once we had to go to a second day .

Last year we filled out 3-3 the first day with big birds . It’s just perfect habitat for turkeys—rolling hills, oaks, cedars, pasture, big crop field, small tucked away fields. They love it !

I’m not sure why the survival is so good, but I see 25-75 turkeys every time I’m there … or more .

Some pics
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I can confirm. I spent longer in the truck than in the state of iowa to fill 2 tags.
 
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