9th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 2005
Missouri Wild Turkey Population was 600,000 to 800,000 in 2005

The Symposium
was held at Grand Rapids, Michigan - December 10-14, 2000

Proceedings have been published for all of the Symposia, and except for the second, they are cited as a series. The second Symposium was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1973 and titled "Wild Turkey Management, Current Problems and Programs."

Copies of all National Wild Turkey Symposia, including the second, can be obtained from the National Wild Turkey Federation, Edgefield, South Carolina

I recommend everyone start requesting copies.

Some information about Wild Turkey you only told parts about - You will really enjoy!!!!!!

Information from the 9th National Wild Turkey Symposium in 2000 from these states and countries Texas, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon, Kansas, South Dakota, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Missouri.

MISSOURI

ONE HUGE ISSUE - Wild Turkey Population was never consider only hunter retention and hunter recruitment was the only concern. 

​Missouri Youth Turkey Season – History of totals. 22 season of 2 days season

​2022 Youth Turkey Season Total 2,881 rank 17th
2021 - Youth Turkey Season Total 2,795 rank 18th
2020 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 2,724 rank 19th
2019 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 2,546 rank 20th
2018 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 1,729 – rank 22nd - Lowest Youth Harvest
2017 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,012 – rank 5th
2016 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,167 – rank 4th
2015 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,441 – rank 1st - Highest Youth Harvest
2014 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,332 – rank 2nd
2013 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 3,915 – rank 7th
2012 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,319 – rank 3rd
2011 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 3,898 – rank 9th
2010 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,945 – rank 6th
2009 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 2,884 – rank 16th
2008 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 2,898 – rank 15th
2007 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,545 – rank 12th
2006 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,694 – rank 10th
2005 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,894 – rank 8th
2004 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,258 – rank 13th
2003 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,660 – rank 11th
2002 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,102 – rank 14th
2001 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 2,530 – rank 21st – First Youth Season

2001 First spring youth season - Research dictated that if we are to guard against overharvest of mature gobblers, the spring season must begin after the peak in breeding activity in early April.

MISSOURI YOUTH SEASON GOES AGAINST THE VERY BIOLOGICAL REASON FOR THE DAY THE SEASON OPENS - The season opens Monday closest to April 21st. This corresponds to the historical records of the second peak Missouri Ozark Gobbling. This is the biological reason for the opening day.

Which may lead to the great successes in turkey population because the hens get to breed with the dominate birds with the first peak gobbling.

So Biological Reason no longer exist - Why not open the season the SATURDAY AND SUNDAY before the Monday closets to April 21st for Biological Reason! (Example too early: April 4 and 5 – 2020 Youth Season)

As the wild turkey population grows the season expanded, but as population decline nothing allowed to change in Missouri?

When the youth season was study – Only Hunter Recruitment and Hunter Retention was consider, if the wild turkey population was never consider in research done in Missouri.

Nest success and poult survival are keys to turkey population trends.

Turkeys have a complex mating system. Toms begin gobbling and strutting in March to determine their pecking order before breeding begins in early April.

If the boss gobbler is killed, the others in his close group may not be able to breed hens immediately. Hens don’t just breed with the next gobbler available.

Letting dominant toms get most hens bred in late early April gives the local population its best chance at more successful nests and putting the greatest number of poults on the ground at the same time.
Jakes will try to breed, but their sperm isn’t viable.

A nest is less likely to contain any infertile eggs if the hen was bred multiple times, and by different toms, over the 10 to 12-day laying period. She will move around to visit different gobblers and breed with the most dominant ones.

Hens can store sperm for 30 days, but viability drops rapidly (which is one reason why the more she breeds, the better the odds of a successful nest). Eggs laid within a few days after breeding do better than those laid with stored sperm.

Most hens are laying at the end of April thru May. Competition to breed is most intense as hens are laying. Disturbance and disruption from hunters during this period has more impact on total poult production for the year than does hunting during the latter half of April and in May.

Reduced gobbling

As toms are harvested, gobbling activity decreases: Fewer birds to gobble, and remaining birds gobble less because of disruption to the pecking order, and disturbance from hunting.

Nesting behavior of hens stimulates gobbling to increase, but this effect is weaker than the impact of hunter disturbance, which causes birds to gobble less. Net effect is less gobbling once hunting season opens even though hens are nesting.

Hunters remove the most vocal birds. Domestic breeders do this purposefully, and it works.
Nesting issues

“Predator swamping” is when all the hens lay their nests within the same few weeks, so that predators can’t get them all before the poults hatch. Also, a shorter nesting period means most poults are equally vulnerable at the same time, “swamping” the ability of local predators to get them all before they’re able to fly.

Breeding season disruption (discussed above) causes many hens to start their nests later, and a few will not attempt to nest at all.

If a hen loses her 1st nest early, she may re-nest, but these, 2nd or even 3rd attempts usually fail to produce poults that survive to the next spring.

When hens are starting their 1st nests over the course of several weeks, the predator swamping effect is lost.
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If there is a big size difference in the poults that do survive, hens are less likely to group up their poults in late summer, which also increases their vulnerability to predation

The 9th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium -

File to big to upload under my conditions.

More Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - Too come

1st

7th

2nd

8th

3rd

10th

4th

11th

6th

12th

​THE STATE OF THE MISSOURI WILD TURKEY 

15 Year History of Wild Turkeys in Southern Missouri
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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MISSOURI WILD TURKEY
Missouri Wild Turkey Mecca Rest in Peace
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​2021 Spring Missouri Wild Turkey Season now holds the record of the worse season in 24-year history of a three-week season in Missouri.
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MISSOURI WILD TURKEY HUNTERS - LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD
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Missouri Wild Turkey Harvest Records
Harvest, Youth Harvest, Permits, Non-Resident Permits, etc. etc. etc.
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Missouri Wild Turkey Conservation
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MISSOURI WILD TURKEY RESEARCH
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MISSOURI REAL WORLD VS MDC MYTHBUSTERS