The disappearing recreation: Researching wild turkey decline

12 February 2024

6 minute learn

Six hours have now handed, and nonetheless, no motion. The dew fades, and the birds sing, however no turkeys seem.

Latest annual surveys from the Oklahoma Division of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) counsel a decline in Oklahoma turkey populations, and observations made by wildlife fans verify these outcomes, mentioned Kurt Kuklinski, ODWC wildlife variety and analysis supervisor.

“For the final three to 5 years, we’ve began to see some declines within the turkey inhabitants,” Kuklinski mentioned relating to latest annual surveys.

The outcomes of the info had been magnified when recreation wardens, biologists and hunters all started asking in regards to the decline, Kuklinski mentioned. As a result of this downside was noticed by many, ODWC officers determined to look deeper into the turkey inhabitants concern, he added.

To uncover the reason for the decline, the ODWC requested analysis proposals about Oklahoma’s turkey inhabitants, Kuklinski mentioned.

“ODWC initially put out the request for proposals, and Oklahoma State College jumped on it,” mentioned Cody Griffin, doctoral scholar within the OSU Division of Pure Useful resource Ecology and Administration.

School members created a proposal to check the turkey inhabitants in partnership with Texas A&M College-Kingsville, Griffin mentioned. In 2021, the proposal was accepted, and the analysis group started working with the ODWC to finish every half, mentioned Dr. Colter Chitwood, OSU NREM assistant professor and lead principal investigator on the grant.

The wild turkey analysis group is comprised of school and college students from OSU and TAMU-Kingsville.

Between the 2 universities, six school members and 4 graduate college students are concerned within the five-year mission, Griffin mentioned.

As the primary scholar on the mission, Nicolle De Filippo, OSU NREM grasp’s scholar, led the primary wave of turkey captures in southeast Oklahoma, she mentioned.

“Within the late winter and early spring when turkeys are flocked collectively of their winter teams, we put out bait, take photos and arrange a seize web site,” De Filippo mentioned. “From the seize web site, we’ll launch a rocket internet and lure the turkeys beneath the online.”

Backpack transmitters then are positioned on every turkey to observe its habits and survival within the surroundings, De Filippo added.

“Capturing turkeys might be the toughest a part of the mission,” Griffin mentioned. “We’ve totally different strategies for capturing turkeys relying on the a part of the state.”

In southwest Oklahoma, Griffin makes use of walk-in traps as a substitute of rocket nets, he mentioned. Though Jap wild turkeys are hesitant to stroll into traps, the Rio Grande turkey has no downside doing so, Griffin added. The bait alone is positioned within the traps whereas the turkeys get used to them, Griffin mentioned. Then, after they’re snug strolling into the traps, funnels are inserted so the turkeys get caught, he continued.

“As soon as the turkeys are caught, I do the identical factor they’re doing within the southeast,” Griffin mentioned. “I do morphometric measurements, accumulate blood samples and placed on the transmitters. I benefit from the problem of what we are able to do with the info we’ve as we actually work to contribute to science.”

This yr, as De Filippo finishes her grasp’s program, her analysis shall be continued by Cyrena Bedoian, OSU NREM grasp’s scholar. She is going to give attention to the predatory facet of the mission whereas persevering with the analysis De Filippo was conducting, Bedoian mentioned.

“I’ll be placing recreation cameras out to have a look at mammalian nest predators to see what the predator composition appears to be like like on the panorama,” she added.

Proper now, the purpose is to realize a complete understanding of the turkeys’ nesting habits, reproductive success, and survival of various life levels to find out if a decline is happening and, in that case, what’s inflicting it, De Filippo mentioned.

“We’re accumulating among the greatest information ever collected on turkeys in Oklahoma,” Chitwood mentioned. “Despite the fact that turkey analysis has been carried out in Oklahoma earlier than, the expertise has grown by leaps and bounds, so the data we are able to get now’s an unbelievable development for the ODWC. It’s an necessary mission on an necessary species at an necessary time.”

In the course of the five-year span, the mission is anticipated to value about $1.3 million with funds distributed yearly based mostly on projected price range wants, Chitwood mentioned.

“The funding mechanism in these grant packages is a big asset to wildlife administration and wildlife analysis,” Kuklinski mentioned.

With the funding offered by the ODWC, OSU can help a lot of the analysis prices, Chitwood mentioned.

The ODWC funding might be allotted towards gear, transportation, housing, and even salaries and tuition for the graduate college students, Griffin mentioned. Just lately, the analysis group bought new transmitters with grant funding.

With this new expertise, the group can accumulate higher information at a fraction of the fee, he added.

This grant advantages the college and college students financially, Chitwood mentioned. Two grasp’s college students and two doctoral college students are finishing their graduate analysis necessities by means of this mission.

“We wouldn’t have the ability to do these initiatives on our personal,” Kuklinski mentioned. “To handle the turkey decline, we first have to know what’s inflicting it, and we don’t have the manpower and capability to go on the market and determine it out ourselves.”

With the funds offered by the grant, the NREM division will pay for the coed coaching and discipline work to reply these questions, Chitwood mentioned. It simply is sensible for each events concerned, he added.

“The analysis being carried out is absolutely on the backs of the scholars,” Griffin mentioned. “We’re the automobiles for it.”

Even undergraduates have some ways to become involved in initiatives like this, Bedoian mentioned. Top-of-the-line methods is to ask about alternatives and even volunteer to assist with a mission, she added.

“The extra expertise you may have, the better it will likely be so that you can determine what you want and what you don’t,” De Filippo mentioned.

Earlier than coming to OSU, Bedoian labored with Chitwood and different school members on a latest pronghorn analysis mission, she mentioned.

When she heard in regards to the present analysis alternative, realizing she would work with the identical school members made coming to OSU a straightforward resolution, Bedoian added.

“The chance to work with anyone I admired was superior,” De Filippo mentioned.

With the educational assets, scholar coaching and coursework out there at OSU, this partnership creates a terrific answer for the ODWC, Chitwood mentioned.

On the finish of this mission, the ODWC hopes the suggestions from the analysis group will present them adjustments to implement within the turkey habitat, Kuklinski mentioned.

“If there’s a land administration apply that might instantly influence and profit turkey nesting success, that’s like a silver bullet for us,” Kuklinski mentioned. “That’s one thing we may instantly latch onto and broadly apply throughout a panorama for the betterment of the turkey inhabitants.”

The top purpose is to have a look at the outcomes and give you the perfect answer, whether or not or not it’s altering the land administration practices or implementing a particular habitat administration approach, Kuklinski mentioned.

“Turkeys are such a beloved pure useful resource,” Bedoian mentioned. “We wish to do as a lot as we are able to to maintain turkeys on the Oklahoma panorama for generations to return.”

Let’s Speak Turkeys

Jap Turkey

• Primarily discovered within the far jap third of Oklahoma.
• Bigger than the Rio Grande subspecies.
• Longer tail feathers current as a darkish chocolate colour, and the shorter tail feathers on the base are extra chestnut brown.

Rio Grande Turkey