![]() The long-term average since 1983 is 3.4 poults per hen. In other words, by August that year hens had an average of only 1.4 surviving poults. After several years of flooding and habitat lost to urbanization, the poult-per-hen ratio dropped to a record low of 1.4 in August 2020, according to the TWRA’s 2021 Annual Wild Turkey Status Report. This is especially true in the Mississippi River corridor, where flooding has submerged large tracts of habitat. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency turkey program coordinator Roger Shields confirmed that the state’s poult production has struggled in recent years, matching the regional trend. “We’ve fragmented forest, we’ve converted forest from hardwoods to pine, we’ve removed habitat for urbanization and development, so if you look at the United States now versus 20 years ago, it’s just not as ‘good’ as it for turkeys.” “We’ve essentially created ideal predator habitat in a lot of wild turkey range,” he says. Why are turkey poults struggling to survive? It starts with nesting habitat and brood rearing habitat. We’re not making as many young turkeys as we were.” “The research has clearly shown that are just not as productive as they were a few decades ago. “There’s no question that birds are struggling in some areas, particularly in the Southeast and parts of the Midwest,” Chamberlain tells Outdoor Life. Each graph represented a state in the Southeast, and each trend line represented the state’s poult-per-hen ratio over the last two to five decades. When Chamberlain delivered his “State of the Turkey” address at the National Wild Turkey Federation’s 2022 Rendezvous, he showed a collection of 12 graphs on a single slide. “Right now, we’re losing more than we’re winning,” Chamberlain says. But in order to win a game, every position needs to work together. In some games (or regions for this metaphor), certain positions matter more than others. Predator suppression might be the kicker. ![]() Brood rearing habitat would be the quarterback, for example. Each important factor is a different position. Declining habitat quality, including changing agricultural practices.Ĭhamberlain says that hunters should think about turkey population dynamics like a football team.(In other words, hunters were spoiled by unsustainably high turkey numbers in decades past the population densities we see now could be the new normal.) A natural “contraction” after reintroduction and historic high populations.“There are many hypotheses for why turkey populations have declined,” Stiller says, listing them off. (The statewide population has been relatively stable since a serious statewide decline in the 2000s.) Wild turkeys stack up on private lands and in areas protected from hunting, like this one in Shenandoah National Park. New York Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist Josh Stiller highlights recent, localized declines in western New York. In the East, key issues include habitat loss and degradation, an increase in predators, and, yes, hunting pressure.īut as Chamberlain notes, this drop isn’t limited to the Southeast. Mike Chamberlain says there are a variety of factors contributing to turkey population declines. As these troubles continue to creep from state to state, the real question is, why? The Factors of a Population Decline
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