Missouri Department of Conservation <[email protected]>
To: Allen Morris
Thu 9/15/2022 10:16 AM
Help Us Learn More About Missouri's Turkeys
Enroll in the Fall Turkey feather submission project.
Dear George Morris,
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is asking hunters to share feathers from turkeys they harvest this fall. The information gathered from these feathers will improve models used to monitor turkey population trends and estimate turkey abundance across the state.
If you are interested in sharing feathers from the turkeys you harvest this fall, please register by clicking the button below. After you Telecheck your turkey, please retain a wing and 3-5 feathers from the breast. You will be mailed a feather submission packet, including a postage-paid return envelope to submit the feathers at no cost to you.
The process of registering and sharing your feather samples will only take a few minutes yet your participation will provide us with valuable information that will impact turkey management for years to come.
Thank you for helping us improve our monitoring of Missouri’s wild turkey resource.
Sincerely,
MDC’s Wild Turkey Management Program
[email protected]
From: Allen Morris
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2022 4:32 PM
To: Wild Turkey Management Program <[email protected]>
Subject: Stop shooting hens
Dr. Michael Chamberlain says no biological reason to kill hens in Missouri during a decline.
https://youtu.be/2MyOB8N9Dso?t=1539 short cut to Missouri
Do you know that with all the research on wild Turkey for the past 75 years, not 1 in any state, has ever look at loss rate from archery or crossbow.
You can find it for deer but not willd turkey.
If I am wrong - Please post your game and fish department research on lost rate
So game and fish department are setting season limits in spring and fall with ZERO knowledge of lost rates in fall.
Wild Turkey Management Program <[email protected]>
To: Allen Morris
Mon 9/19/2022 12:38 PM
Dear Mr. Morris,
Thank you for writing to express your concerns about the turkey population in Missouri.
Dr. Chamberlain is certainly a very respected ecologist with an enormous amount of wild turkey experience, so I do not discount anything he says, nor do I discount the experiences of hunters and turkey enthusiasts such as yourself. Without going too far down the rabbit hole with the specific numbers, I think I can summarize what Dr. Chamberlain was saying as: turkeys harvested in the fall cannot reproduce in the spring, meaning we are limiting our production potential by having a fall season. If that is not how you would phrase it, please feel free to correct me, but I think that is a fair interpretation of a several minutes long conversation.
Using recently collected information on wild turkey survival and reproductive rates in Missouri, we estimated how the turkey population would respond to more conservative hunting regulations, including reduced bag limits, shorter fall seasons, prohibiting hen harvest in the fall, or if we closed the fall turkey seasons entirely. What we found is that even if we closed the fall seasons entirely, which was the most conservative scenario, the turkey population would not substantially increase in abundance and would continue to decline in some parts of the state. Therefore, more conservative regulations would contribute to fewer hunting opportunities without having the desired effect on turkey abundance.
Turkey abundance appears to be driven primarily by production, not survival or harvest of adult turkeys. Unfortunately, turkey production in Missouri and our neighboring states has been declining over the last several decades. There are many factors that have contributed to this long-term declining trend, including the loss of quality nesting and brood rearing habitat, changing weather patterns, increasing numbers of nest and poult predators, and perhaps a decline in insect abundance. We are, in conjunction with the University of Missouri, conducting research aimed at determining the best management strategies to mitigate the effect that these factors are likely having on production and abundance.
As for turkey mortality related to wounding loss, you are correct in that we do not have a precise number. We have, however, done research in which we have placed radio and GPS transmitters on more than 200 hens and zero have been lost due to a wound sustained during the archery hunting season. While we cannot say that it does not happen, and surely it does, the number of birds affected is low and, much like fall hunting harvest, does not appear to be driving the decline in turkey production and abundance.
Mr. Morris, I sincerely appreciate you writing in and sharing your passion for wild turkey management in Missouri. I hope I was able to address your concerns.
Sincerely,
Nick Oakley
Turkey/Grouse Scientist
Missouri Department of Conservation
3500 East Gans Road
Columbia, MO 65203
To: 'Wild Turkey Management Program' <[email protected]>
CC: Charles Anderson <[email protected]>
Mon 9/19/2022 2:36 PM
I wish you good luck with your new position, hope you are successful because if you are not the wild turkey suffers. If you are wrong and everything below is correct, then unfortunately we are doomed. Tell me if I am wrong – Your models only show a single issue when put in it does not cover everything that is going on today in Southern Missouri or Missouri for that matter.
This is going to be long. I don’t believe anyone is willing to make the hard choices. But here it goes. Good luck with your new job – Welcome to the fire and out of the frying pan. I will be your biggest critic but I am willing to give you benefit of the doubt to start.
Great article may not mention wild turkey, but it should. https://projectupland.com/culture/bird-hunting-bag-limits/ because my turkey population has dropped 98% I did not hunt turkeys for the first time since I started. Your department lost a hunter! You lost kids hunting on my property and friends! No turkey hunting is allowed till I see population increase.
While I disagree with some of your remarks you are saying driven by production but you in the next breath say hens don’t matter over opportunity, find that very upsetting when exploitation of a wild resource priority for opportunity. When my neighbor is 9,000 acres of conservation area it upsets me even more.
FY 2022 - Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri NWTF says opportunity to kill a hen matters more than Conservation of hens because only 1% are killed! Well let’s look at the numbers because too many items the agency has done and is doing makes any sense with what the public is being told.
Missouri Wild Turkey facts and questions
1975 - The major objective by the Missouri Department of Conservation in Missouri’s Turkey Season has been to provide maximum hunting opportunity commensurate with the population’s ABILITY to sustain harvest. Does this no longer apply?
Did you know that from 1953 to 1975 – For 22 years while the Missouri wild turkey population restoration was taking place wild turkey hens DID matter and no fall archery or fall firearms season existed for wild turkey hens. The wild turkey population’s DID NOT have the ability to sustain harvest of wild turkey hens.
1978 Fall firearms and 1975 archery season for wild turkey took place because the population was doing well. This gave the Missouri Department of Conservation the ability to provide more opportunities for Missouri hunters over a longer span of time.
The Adult / Juvenile ratio dropped in 1973 to 1:1.9 and that is why two bird limit was dropped in 1974. - Published in the Missouri Conservationist in April 1974 - 1974 - Bag limit reduced to 1 bird due to poor hatch in 1973 – History shows 500-year flood in 73 because the population could not sustain harvest.
To maintain a balance approximately 2.5 poults per hen must be produce. When this ratio drops below 2.5 a population is decline indicated and when it goes above 2.5 an increase occurs.
1977 Production Rate of Turkey hens – 3.88 ratio of adults to juveniles – Highest on record
But this is not a single factor issue what was happening in Missouri 1940 – 1941 – 834,935 pelts harvested (most pelts sold) (over 70% were opossum and skunk pelts) most pelts sold
1945 – 1946 – Missouri Fur Dealer Permit 1,192
The Adult / Juvenile ratio dropped in 1973 to 1:1.9 and that is why two bird limit was dropped in 1974. - Published in the Missouri Conservationist in April 1974 - 1974 - Bag limit reduced to 1 bird due to poor hatch in 1973 – History shows 500-year flood in 73 because the population could not sustain harvest.
To maintain a balance approximately 2.5 poults per hen must be produce. When this ratio drops below 2.5 a population is decline indicated and when it goes above 2.5 an increase occurs.
1974 - The Department’s major objective is the management of the wild turkey resource is to provide maximum hunting opportunity commensurate with the TURKEY POPULATION’S ABILITY TO SUSTAIN HARVEST.
1977 Production Rate of Turkey hens – 3.88 ratio of adults to juveniles – Highest on record
1979 – 1980 – 634,338 (2nd highest pelts sold - when average raccoon pelt values were estimated at $27.50.
1997 – 1998 – Over 200,000 Raccoons were trapped.
1980 – 1981 – 13,248 trapping permits sold in the state of Missouri
2004 – Most Wild Turkeys ever killed 60,744
20-year decline in Wild Turkey Population and Harvest - As the wild turkey population grows the season expanded with archery, fall, youth and higher bag limits, but as population decline nothing allowed to change! WHY?
What has changed since the wild turkey restoration stopped in 1979, - Equipment - Shotguns, Ammunitions, Compound Bows, Crossbows and Youth Season none of these are being addressed.
NO. 1 - To maintain a balance approximately 2.5 poults per hen must be produce. When this ratio drops below 2.5 a population is decline indicated and when it goes above 2.5 an increase occurs. – Since the drop below 2.5 Missouri has killed 161,508 Wild Turkey Hens. WHY? What is the biological and scientific reason in killing hens?
NO. 2 – There is NO Biological Reason for shooting a Wild Turkey Hen during a population decline!!! - FAMED Tennessee biologist Jack Murray – “If you don’t have hens, you won’t have any gobblers and if you don’t have gobblers, you don’t have hunters.”
NO. 3 - Past 6 season in the Spring, Fall and Archery Seasons Totals Hens killed. 20,492 Wild Turkeys Hens have been killed, while the 6-year average of poult production was .9 poults per hen. During a recent podcast on Voyage Outdoors - Jun 30, 2022, The NO. 1 Wild Turkey Biologist in the country "Mike Chamberlain" in country says there is no biological reason to kill the hens in Missouri for past 5 years in Missouri during a decline of population.
NO. 4 - Missouri Department of Conservation Quail Biologist - if 6% of the quail are making thru the breeding season it just COMPOUNDS THE NUMBER OF NEST AND NEST SUCCESS. Waterfowl Hens and Pheasant Hens are limited in harvest, only Wild Turkey in Missouri does this not apply. Except for 1953 thru 1975 when Missouri as the wild turkey population was still growing and not able to sustain hen harvest. So is the MDC quail biologist wrong also?
NO. 5 – Your model you keep talking about has been proven wrong way before now in previous research and I have seen the department STATUS QUO – DOING NOTING SLIDE. - EFFECTS OF FALL EITHER-SEX HUNTING ON SURVIVAL
Survival rates and patterns we observed before the initiation of fall hunting were not unusual.
Annual survival rates were >50% for adult turkeys. Spring hunting caused the greatest mortality in males, and a combination of illegal spring hunting and PREDATION DURNING NESTING/BROOD-REARING ACTIVITES CAUSED THE MOST HENS DEATHS.
Juveniles of both sexes were exposed to heavier predation during the fall than adults were, and
to legal and illegal hunting-related mortality during the spring-hunting season, but annual
survival rates were not greatly different for juveniles and adults of either sex.
Reported similar annual or seasonal mortality rates, patterns, or causes of death for radio-tagged eastern turkeys Missouri.
The fall-to-spring survival rates we observed for AM suggest that fall hunting may reduce the number of gobblers available to spring hunters, i.e., most AM shot in the fall would otherwise be alive the following spring.
Fall hunting would not affect turkey populations IF FALL HUNTING MORTALITY IS COMPENSATORY that is, if there is a compensating increase in survival during other periods of the year to offset fall hunting, or if birds shot by fall hunters would have died anyway to some other agent. NEITHER OF THESE SITUATION EXISTED DURING THIS STUDY. AVERAGE ANNUAL SURVIVAL RATES OF ALL AGE-SEX CLASSES DECLINED AFTER FALL HUNTERS WAS INTRODUCED.
This implies that fall hunting may affect future turkey populations. SHOOTHING ADULT TURKEYS IN POOR PRODUCTION YEARS MAY REDUCE THE NUMBER OF HENS AVAILABLE TO NEST as well as reduce gobbler numbers available to hunters. A REDUCTION IN HENS COULD REDUCE RECRUITMENT AND TOTAL TURKEY NUMBERS FURTHER AND PROLONG THE RECORVER FROM POOR PRODUCTION THAN WOULD HAVE OCCURRED WITHOUT FALL HUNTING.
History from Sixth Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium
Proceedings from The Sixth Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - February 26 thru March 1, 1990
NO. 6 - 2022 – Fall Deer & Turkey Regulations and information – NO FALL SHOTGUN SEASON FOR Dunklin, McDonald, Mississippi, New Madrid, Newton, Pemiscot, and Scott – if killing hens don’t matter or fall shotgun season doesn’t matter and opportunity is the priority – Why are the counties closed?
Yes I am very familiar with your research and the core area of the research. I find it complete irrelevant to Southern Missouri. I also just read the article in the St. Louis post dispatch which I find offensive and disrespectful to Southern Missouri Landowners but I don’t expect anything less from the NWTF biologist.
Why did MDC publish ONLY the 1 year finding in the NWTF Missouri magazine but not to the general public? Last I checked more people hunt turkeys than belong to the NWTF in Missouri!
Why was this left out to the public - "About 75% of nests failed due to predation of the actual nest, and 8% failed due to predation of the hen that was incubating the clutch"
NO. 7 – Name the research Missouri Department of Conservation has done on Armadillos in Putnam County OR for that matter in the STATE OF MISSOURI?
Maybe take time and read Tall Timbers Research Station and Martin Labs are graph which are not grasping at straws. ARE THEY WRONG ALSO?
August 21, 2021 Wildlife biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation “I’ve been doing this for 18 years now, and when I started, we were just starting to see armadillos around. We really were telling people, ‘We will get a couple harsh winters, and they’ll die off. They’re just not well equipped to survive our winter. They don’t store fat well.’ We were proven wrong about that, and I don’t say that anymore. Around 10 years ago, I stopped telling people that.”
Armadillo’s common place in Southern Missouri - TWO – MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST in May of 2021 issue – Forgot to mention that Armadillos are destroying Turkey Nest. – I have photo and evidence of them destroying a nest – Armadillo is now considered NATIVE and no hunting or trapping season.
Also Tall Timbers Research Station and Martin Labs graph dealing with quail show that these are the top 4 nest predators - Snakes 29%, Raccoons 20%, Armadillos 16% and Opossum 12%
No, they are not looking for the eggs, but he bugs under the nest, and they bulldoze the eggs and if they bust them, they will lick up the yokes. Sheer numbers make then an INVASIVE SPECIES to all ground nesting birds in Missouri. Even the Tennessee Game Warden Video in 2021 shows Armadillo harassing hen on nest.
What the NWTF Biologist so called experts does not say.
Does a wild turkey know the difference between a raccoon, opossum, bobcat, Coyote and an Armadillo.
No, they are just a danger to the life of the hen.
What the expert leaves out and does not say – NO study exist in Missouri with Wild Turkey hens are very susceptible to nest abandonment when flushed from the nest by a predator. Intentional flushes of known nests shows that upwards to 50% of all hens abandon their nests after only one contact. Does it matter if it’s an Armadillo or Raccoon?
Hens that don't abandon after the first event almost never, as high as 85%, suffer more than (2) flushes from the nest. Even the Tennessee Game Warden Video in 2021 shows Armadillo harassing hen on nest.
Putnam County and Northern Missouri Wild Turkey Research does not help Southern Missouri – Your past turkey biologist that preceded you said so.
MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS OF YOUR RESEARCH
Guess what the Missouri Turkey Biologist Vangilder said in the 90's.
Nowhere is there an area in north Missouri of (15,000 ac) that is 70% timbered. Corn and soybean fields more than make up for the lack of trees and turkey densities in the northern part of the state are much higher than in the more heavily forested parts of south Missouri.
Biologists are sometimes forced to use data obtained from short-term, localized studies to model populations on large geographic areas. Often, the results obtained during these modeling efforts do not reflect actual changes in the population.
These types of problems are evident when comparing similar research between northern and southern Missouri. Obviously, average reproductive potential differs substantially between the 2 regions. Southern Missouri has a lower reproductive rate.
How does the Wild Turkey Research in Putnam County Habitat Type compared my county in Southern Missouri – Not even remotely!
Putnam County Wild Turkey Habitat
50% Cropland
31% Patureland
11% Woodland
8% Other
Their research in Northern Missouri just like your place!
The main body of research is on your typical Missouri Landowner - 2,800 acre Working ranch with frontage on Lake Thunderhead, in Putnam County, Missouri. It is currently used for recreational hunting and agriculture farmland. This ranch includes a 4,300 square foot lodge and multiple equipment barns. The property contains over 500 acres of CRP and 150 acres of year-round food plots. The rolling hills, timber and grassland intersected by a large network of gravel roads.
Despite having the best habitat that money can buy - November 25, 2021
Wild Turkey Study in Missouri on the Iowa Border
Only 21% of nests successfully hatched!
Only 23% of poults surviving! - The 80s, that was closer to 46%.”
Which lower than the previous 5-year study in Northern Missouri.
Missouri Sets TWO season records in 2021.
2021 is Missouri Worst Fall Turkey Season in history.
2021 Spring Missouri Wild Turkey Season the worst season in 24-year history of the three-week season in Missouri
78% nest initiation and 20% nest success. Not sustainable unless adult survival is incredibly high, which we know it isn’t. Those numbers parallel nearly all of the research sites across the southeast
Why your hen model is wrong and why hen harvest in Missouri Matters. You tell me you have all these in your models on hen harvest?
How many Bears in your research- Bears are top predator of fawns in states that have done research?
How many Wild Hogs in your research – Last research shown in Missouri the number 1 food source for turkeys was acorns and the no 1 food source for hogs is acorns?
How many Elk in your research – Pecks Ranch was the turkey mecca for restoration for Missouri! Do elk compete for food sources?
How many Armadillos in your Research?
How many Baited Pig Traps in your research supplement feeding raccoons and other nest predators just before nesting season – Over 1,000 in Southern Missouri just before nesting season
So no large tracts of timber and 4 less animals and supplement feeding of nest predator that directly affect Wild Turkeys in Southern Missouri, but not in your research or your models.
805 Tons of corn is the estimate MDC will use for deer and hogs.
February 2, 2022 – The Missouri Department of Conservation anticipates, but does not guarantee, the below estimated amounts of corn will be needed for each region.
Northwest Region – Estimated Amount 20 Tons of Corn
Northeast Region – Estimated Amount 30 Tons of Corn
St. Louis Region – Estimated Amount 25 Tons of Corn
Kansas City Region – Estimated Amount 50 Tons of Corn
Central Region – Estimated Amount – NONE needed
Southwest Region – Estimated Amount 100 Tons of Corn
Ozark Region – Estimated Amount 215 Tons of Corn
Southeast Region – Estimated Amount 415 Tons of Corn
2007 – Only 5,000 Wild Hogs in the Southern part of the State of Missouri
2017 – 2018 – Just Over 26,000 Raccoons were trapped.
2017 – 2018 – Only 7,189 trapping permits sold in the state of Missouri.
2018 - 2019 – 6,956 trapping permits sold in the state of Missouri
2017 – Estimated 20,000 - 30,000 Wild Hogs in the Southern part of the State of Missouri per MTNF 2017 Forest Report
2021 – Over 800 Black Bears in the state of Missouri
2018 - 2019 – Raccoon totaled 22,562 trapped
2018-19 season resulted in the lowest raccoon harvest since 1942 and the longest duration of decline in harvest numbers over the last 25 years with seven consecutive years of decline.
2018- 2019 – Opossum harvest totaled 593 lowest opossum harvests on record.
2018- 2019 – Skunk also resulted in the lowest Skunk harvest since 2000-01 only 156.
2018 – 2019 - Coyote population appears to be on a slight increase since the 1970s.
2018 -2019 - Bobcat season was down 28.40% from 2017-18 The decline in harvest and in the number of bobcat pelts purchased by fur dealers also is likely attributed to a poor global fur market.
2019 – Mountain Lions 30 Confirmed sightings from photos, videos, tracks to DNA proof from deer and two elk calve carcasses. The six-county region of Shannon, Texas, Oregon, Carter, Ripley, and Reynolds counties continues to be a “hot-spot” for confirmations with one of the last two confirmations falling in Shannon County and the other in a Madison county.
2019 - 41 Fur Buyer Permits
2020 - Around 700 +/- Individuals belong to the Missouri Trappers Association.
2020 – Up to 100,000 Wild Hogs in State of Missouri per the USDA-Aphis Chief – February 2020
2021 – Armadillo’s common place in Southern Missouri -
MISSOURI 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. Over 74,000 Gobblers have been killed.
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, 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 have 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.
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
PREDATORS - I fought for 10 years to get this change for landowner and it finally happened because a commissioner needed it
To maintain a balance approximately 2.5 poults per hen must be produce. When this ratio drops below 2.5 a population is decline indicated and when it goes above 2.5 an increase occurs.
Missouri – Just one Example of the primary egg eater of Wild Turkeys
Poult: Hen Ratio - Year -Raccoon Pelts Sold/Registered
2.6 1998 200,000
2.3 1999 107,267
2.3 2000 55,254
2.1 2001 50,254
1.7 2002 110,603
1.6 2003 103,550
1.6 2004 102,448
1.2 2005 116,396
1.6 2006 84,654
1.0 2007 122,155
1.1 2008 118,166
1.2 2009 122,155
1.1 2010 49,290
1.7 2011 109,586
1.7 2012 158,356
1.3 2013 138,865
1.7 2014 134,715
1.5 2015 85,497
0.8 2016 34,758
0.8 2017 32,106
0.9 2018 26,340
0.9 2019 22,562
1.0 2020 24,652
Now add in Bobcats, Coyotes, Opossum, Skunks, Foxes, and Crows, etc., etc. who population has only increased since the dismal fur markets relying on China and Russia.
August 21, 2021 Wildlife biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation “I’ve been doing this for 18 years now, and when I started, we were just starting to see armadillos around. We really were telling people, ‘We will get a couple harsh winters, and they’ll die off. They’re just not well equipped to survive our winter. They don’t store fat well.’ We were proven wrong about that, and I don’t say that anymore. Around 10 years ago, I stopped telling people that.”
Armadillo’s common place in Southern Missouri - TWO – MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST in May of 2021 issue – Forgot to mention that Armadillos are destroying Turkey Nest. – I have photo and evidence of them destroying a nest – Armadillo is now considered NATIVE and no hunting or trapping season.
Also Tall Timbers Research Station and Martin Labs graph dealing with quail show that these are the top 4 nest predators - Snakes 29%, Raccoons 20%, Armadillos 16% and Opossum 12%
No, they are not looking for the eggs, but he bugs under the nest, and they bulldoze the eggs and if they bust them, they will lick up the yokes. Sheer numbers make then an INVASIVE SPECIES to all ground nesting birds in Missouri. Even the Tennessee Game Warden Video in 2021 shows Armadillo harassing hen on nest.
What the NWTF Biologist so called experts does not say.
Does a wild turkey know the difference between a raccoon, opossum, bobcat, Coyote and an Armadillo.
No, they are just a danger to the life of the hen.
What the expert leaves out and does not say – NO study exist in Missouri with Wild Turkey hens are very susceptible to nest abandonment when flushed from the nest by a predator. Intentional flushes of known nests shows that upwards to 50% of all hens abandon their nests after only one contact.
Hens that don't abandon after the first event almost never, as high as 85%, suffer more than (2) flushes from the nest. Even the Tennessee Game Warden Video in 2021 shows Armadillo harassing hen on nest.
2021 - The number of bald eagles in the lower 48 U.S. states — a population once on the brink of extinction, has quadrupled in the last dozen years to more than 316,000, federal wildlife officials – common sense tells you that Hawks and Owls must me at an all-time high.
74 YEARS – WAKE UP! WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR!
74 years of research on Wild Turkeys nothing NEW, it's been the same story, only difference today no fur market and less trappers. You decide!
1948 - Alabama –
Raccoon – 31 Nest Destroyed.
1980’s - KENTUCKY
Raccoon - 52 Nest Destroyed 48.6%
1980’s – Florida
The turkey had a 59% success rate when predator control was not practiced.
The turkey had a 72% success rate where predator control was being carried out during the nesting season.
1980’s – Alabama
Nest Losses – 44.5% - The nest predation
On predator control areas a total of 55.1% of the hens (1971-75) was accompanied by poults compared to only 24.4% on non-predator control areas.
Total poult production was much higher on predator control areas than non-predator control areas for the 5 years.
176 hens and 609 poults seen on predator control areas. 5 year average of poult:hen ratio of 3.5 on predator control areas.
156 hens and 169 poults seen non predator control areas. 5 year average of poult:hen ratio 1.1
1995 – Missouri
In this study, predation caused, on average, 68% of the hen mortality on the two study areas
In this study, legal harvest accounted for 30% of the adult gobbler mortality, and predation accounted for 51% of the mortality.
2021 - Missouri
"About 75% of nests failed due to predation of the actual nest, and 8% failed due to predation of the hen that was incubating the clutch"
2022 - Oklahoma
Work started with 28 hen turkeys fitted with GPS or VHS radio trackers. Predators killed seven during mating season. Of 21 remaining, only nine are documented to have attempted a first nest and all those nests were lost.
Of those hens, seven attempted a second nesting. By the first of June only four nests remained active. Predators took the eggs of one nest, two nests failed due to predators killing the hens and one nest of four eggs saw a successful hatch of three poults.
The day after the poults were fitted with transmitters all three were killed. One died of unknown causes, one was killed by “a mammalian predator,” and one transmitter was found inside a cottonmouth snake. None of the hens attempted a third nest.
2022 – Alabama
ALABAMA RESEARCH UPDATE (YEAR 1) - Turkeys For Tomorrow
TFT’s preliminary results of this study are as follows:
A total of 20 hens were monitored during spring/summer 2022.
18/20 hens survived (90%).
15 hens (75%) attempted to nest. All hens in the study were adults at time of capture.
2 hens (10%) successfully hatched at least one poult. All other nests failed.
Brood survival was 0% (none of the hatched poults lived).
2022 IOWA RESEARCH UPDATE (YEAR 2) Turkeys for Tomorrow.
Dan Kaminski, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR, has been marking hens and poults with GPS or VHF/radio transmitters since 2021. This has enabled Dan to evaluate population demographic parameters related to hen and poult survival, cause-specific mortality, and nesting rates.
A portion of Dan’s research is listed below and gives a glimpse into the challenges the wild turkey is facing in Iowa. These results are only for one year and so additional years of data are needed to understand how these numbers fit into the greater picture of turkey reproduction in Iowa.
- A total of 73 hens were marked last winter.
- As of early August, 27 hens have died for a mortality rate of 38%.
- Of 63 hens available to nest starting on May 1, only 7 nests hatched successfully (i.e., hatched at least one egg; 11% hen success rate).
- Of 33 hens marked with GPS transmitters, 7 hens did not incubate a nest, 17 incubated 1 nest, 8 incubated 2 nests, and 1 incubated 3 nests.
- Most of the nest failure was due to predation, however, one nest failed due to hay mowing and one failed due to abandonment by the hen
- The median day of nest failure was 8 days, and a preliminary nest survival model indicates 50% of nests failed by day 10 of incubation.
- Of the 7 nests that successfully hatched, the average clutch size was 9.9 eggs per nest and the average number of eggs hatched was 7.7 eggs per nest.
- Of the 54 eggs that hatched, 18 poults were observed during poult captures conducted within 1-3 days post-hatch and a total of 12 poults were marked with VHF/radio transmitters.
During 4-week flush counts for 6 of the 7 hens that hatched a nest, a total of 4 poults remained alive.
HOPE FOR THE WILD TURKEY
Habitat, Seed Coatings, Logging, Pesticides, Over Harvest, Predators land and air, modern weapons, and equipment whatever the reason does not really matter in Missouri.
What is the Missouri Wild Turkey Solution – HOPE – Unfortunately, HOPE is not a strategy or a good turkey management policy”
Hope that a gobbler breeds a hen,
Hope if the hen lives to lay eggs,
Hope if the hen hatches the eggs,
Hope if the poults live to become adults,
Hope that the population will increase.
Missouri the TURKEY HUNTING MECCA in the early 2000’s highlighted in every magazine, outdoor TV show Missouri Spring Season Statewide – As of 2021 Missouri did not make it in the top 10 of Turkey Hunting States and now become a “POTHOLE” state – Some have good population, some in decline, some almost non-existence.
I absolutely believe that game and fish departments and conservation groups like the NWTF have become such government funding drug addicts that's why you never ever see them to include predator control.
It's habitat or nothing. Doing nothing but the Status Quo which the MDC and NWTF experts have suggested.
Because they can get money off habitat and not predator control from federal and state governments.
Both are equally important when we now have Unnatural Predator Populations.
But have you ever noticed NWTF or MDC never priced land management cost a chainsaw, leaf blower, drip torch, tractor, seed and labor! Land Management is Disposable income don't let anyone lie to you!
CONCLUSION
I don’t believe Southern Missouri or Missouri for that matter will ever be a Wild Turkey Mecca again, with all the habitat changes, new wildlife to the region, modern equipment, and the lack of regulation changes, believe that era is gone!
Invest your money in habitat and trapping on your property, NOT the NWTF!
½” trigger pull is all you can control, make your own wildlife management decision on your property of what NOT to shoot. NOT the MDC!
Two Down alot more to go! MY LIST OF Things that need to be addressed for Wild Turkeys in Missouri!
First Missouri would go back to this.
1988 - The major objective in Missouri’s Turkey Season has been to provide maximum hunting opportunity commensurate with the population’s ability to sustain harvest.
MDC regulations move at a bureaucracy pace and will take over a year or two just to make a simple change.
Regulation Changes that CAN and WILL make a difference.
1. ALL hens are in every Season protected - No Archery, No Fall Hens, No Bearded Hens.
WILD TURKEY HENS Breakdown - STOP KILLING HEN IN MISSOURI – They keep saying number of hens killed do not matter to the population, I say – DEAD HENS DON’T LAY EGGS - If they cannot replace themselves in the short term or long term RIGHT NOW per MDC 5-year research - dead hen definably will not.
2. Accomplished - Furbearer Season Extend to February 29 - Stop letting 40 fur buyers, decide the season.
3. Accomplished - Landowner’s furbearers are open longer WE own 93% of the land.
4. Youth Season move to weekend before regular season opens.
5. Flexible Three to Two-Week Season – Flexible 1 to 2 Gobbler Limit per poult hatch like they did 1974!
6. ARMADILLO is not a Native or Non-Native
Take the Armadillo off the Native or Non-Native List and put them on Invasive Species list
7. Wild Turkey Management per regions.
Missouri is divided by 8 Regions they are good enough for regional wildlife management. “Ability to adapt to regional rains, floods and droughts to be able to adapt as quickly as the world is changing around landowners in each of those regions.
Let me be perfectly clear – Lot more could be and should be done – This is the starter list – But NOT One by itself will matter this is going to be a complicated solution for a complicated problem – Doing nothing is not a solution – SEE past 5, 10, 20 years as proof of that!!!
Finally Missouri research is flawed. Has absolutely zero proof of what is happening with larger than 15,000 tracts of timber, hogs, armadillos, bears and elk.
They should have done two projects as the orginal turkey Biologist proved in late 1990s
Generalization of results from a particular study need to be made with caution, especially when harvest management decisions are being made.
Attachement Sent with above.
| fall_hunting.pdf |