Why Are Wild Turkey Populations Diminishing?

[Grouse]

Turkey numbers are on the decline nationwide.  This article explores why that may be.

https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/declining-turkey-populations?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1KEPGNTOxC0i-kFvwMb9uXx4s-KpPSxN0VClyUGFfgJ3oX31ZSYA9MHEI

[Nomad]

Black belt Bill is on the loose !

[DirtTime]

Must be they are taking all these shortages to heart and heading for the hills.

[Four Seasons]

Ours are actually getting bigger in numbers. Call all out warfare on every predator out there and Turkey numbers will go up. 

[Paula]

I always thought it was because people weren't trapping Coyotes and fox because the hides weren't worth that much, I'm sure I could be wrong. Sounds good anyways

I passed 10 in churchville this morning

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by Paula

[WNYTRPR]

Hire a trapper .you will see more Turkey 

[Nytracker]

Dont  know but on my spot birds are up .

[helmut in the bush]

The state dropped the bag limit to 1 in Ohio this year, the flocks diminishing here too.

[JJBat150]

My wife's drive to work this morning....


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[Nytracker]

Limit one gobbler in the spring . Eliminate season on coyotes treat them as the varmints they are .. year-round pest control.

 

[DirtTime]

dare I say it? Why not, what's the worse that can happen people spit at me? Been there done that. Have no seasons for a year or two.

 

Predation is part of the cause, but I keep saying I think the turkey's are moving to new ground. I keep seeing a ton of birds in fields where I never used to see them just 3 years ago. There are more turkey now in the private land I hunt in the NZ that weren't there until a few years ago. I saw a lot of sign up there during the deer season, we hear them every time we camp up there the past three years right down in a gulley behind the camp, I will be hunting up there at least once this May for a weekend, going to set up camp Friday and hunt Saturday and Sunday morning. I saw a flock right next to a parking lot just outside Coxsackie not long ago.

[Four Seasons]

48 minutes ago, blackbeltbill said:

Ok-- I am going up to Four Seasons Farm or Four Season Whitetails. I get those 2 mixed up all the time.

 I hear there are 27 pound Butterballs up there.

  Joke people- don't  fling darts at old Bill.

Lol. We have some smokers for sure but 27 would be pushing it for sure. And Four Season Whitetails is the name of the farm. 

[Four Seasons]

20 minutes ago, Nytracker said:

Limit one gobbler in the spring . Eliminate season on coyotes treat them as the varmints they are .. year-round pest control.

 

We have taken a lot of heat on our approach taken on our past Vermin problems but in this neck of the woods it is vermin season control year around. We can plug them causing issues around the animals but most land owners just take it into their own hands on control. 

[WNYTRPR]

Absolutely no reason not to have a coyote season year round .Nobody anytime soon will wipe them out .

[Buckmaster7600]

No Way.. Spring Bag Limit is perfect at 2 Gobblers. 
  You may also have forgotten  or did not know that in the Summer of 2014- the Fall Turkey Season in large zones 3 +4 was reduced  in 3 ways. The Fall Season was reduced from 6 weeks to 2 weeks, the Fall bag limit was reduced from 2 Turkeys to 1 Turkey, and 3- the opening date of October  1st was  moved way back to later October.  I believe  October 19 this past Fall of 2021.
So you can see- 7 years have passed to raise Turkey Population  levels as was the original  intention. No more steps are necessary. 

I think it should stay at 2 birds but they should have to come from different wmu’s or one tag for 1-15th and one tag for 16-31st of the month.


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[ATbuckhunter]

I think its the degradation of suitable habitat. Now there are pockets of high value habitat and a plethora of marginal. Start working on habitat and you'll see an increase in population. Predation and weather are also impacting as well, but not as much as habitat

[Grouse]

Habitat hasn't changed around here in decades.  But without much trapping going on these days, all predator numbers are way up.  Coyote, coon, fox, skunk, fisher and even crows are doing a number on turkey eggs and poults every year, and the wet spring months don't help either.  Turkey numbers are way down in the last 5 years and the numbers are getting worse.

If you have a lot of turkey around, your predator numbers are probably low, for now.  Once the predators catch up with the flocks, the numbers will fall fast.

[Four Seasons]

28 minutes ago, Grouse said:

Habitat hasn't changed around here in decades.  But without much trapping going on these days, all predator numbers are way up.  Coyote, coon, fox, skunk, fisher and even crows are doing a number on turkey eggs and poults every year, and the wet spring months don't help either.  Turkey numbers are way down in the last 5 years and the numbers are getting worse.

If you have a lot of turkey around, your predator numbers are probably low, for now.  Once the predators catch up with the flocks, the numbers will fall fast.

Exactly. At one time we were seeing more dogs then deer per sit. When war was declared by so many around here the numbers of dogs dropped and fawns and Turkey numbers went up. But with Ny once again having some pretty stupid laws on the books many landowners will not do what it takes to be rid of the vermin even though they could never be wiped out even open year around. 

[Uncle Nicky]

Ask 100 hunters, you will get 100 answers.

I've seen pheasant & grouse basically disappear during my stay on the planet called Earth.

Fall turkey hunting probably has the LEAST impact on turkey numbers, but that's where everyone points the finger first. I'm convinced most fall turkeys are killed by guys that are archery hunting for deer & sling an opportunistic arrow out of boredom, and not by dedicated fall turkey hunters. 

Predators, ESPECIALLY avian predators, are probably the biggest culprits. But it seems like trapping keeps the 4 legged predators in check, or at least helps somewhat. 

Then there is terrain changes, farming practices, suburban sprawl, climate changes, maybe some sort of avian diseases that haven't been discovered yet......

[The_Real_TCIII]

Hire a trapper .you will see more Turkey 

Hopefully all the renewed interest in trapping will help


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[genesee_mohican]

Avian Pox can cause death also, but not on a very large scale. I saw a flock of 25 birds in a field yesterday. Populations seem pretty decent here in Liv Co.

We have a thick frozen crust of snow on the ground right now and some cold temps, can't be easy for them to find food right now.

[wolc123]

On 2/7/2022 at 6:12 PM, Nytracker said:

Limit one gobbler in the spring . Eliminate season on coyotes treat them as the varmints they are .. year-round pest control.

 

Some say that coyotes do the turkeys more good than bad, due to the fact that they help control nest predators.  I would be inclined to agree, because I have seen first hand the last three years, how effective they are at controlling raccoons.  
 

Give a coyote a taste of a coon, and it has got to be tough for them to go back to eating turkeys.  They were digging up coon carcasses here, within two days of my burying them 3 ft deep the last 2 years.  By the end of the summers, I didn’t even have to trap coons anymore in my sweetcorn.  The coyotes were keeping them totally eradicated, all in their own. 
 

Thad said, I haven’t seen much turkey sign lately here on the nw corner of wmu 9F, but my mom reported a flock of seven in their backyard, over on the se corner yesterday.

Edited February 13, 2022 by wolc123

[Nytracker]

Dont know what a yotes meal preference  is  weather it be an easy dead raccoon or a turkey dinner . I do know in the last 10 years I have had yotes come slinking in to my calls . I also know that turkey behavior  has changed . Turkeys gobble a few time on the roost then go quiet as soon as they hit the ground . The last 3 birds I have killed on private land came in quiet. I have watched flocks of hens and jakes feed through my hunting areas and they don't purr and cluck or even yelp like they use to . My uncle has had the same  experience as we were just talking about how much turkey hunting has changed . Use to run and gun  calling every couple hundred yards to strike up a bird . Then working in closer  to set up on a bird. Now we call and sit for 30 to 40 minutes in hopes  a gobbler has heard us and works his way in . Which is contrary  to the hens going to the gobblers to be breed.

[G-Man]

On 2/7/2022 at 11:20 PM, Grouse said:

Habitat hasn't changed around here in decades.  But without much trapping going on these days, all predator numbers are way up.  Coyote, coon, fox, skunk, fisher and even crows are doing a number on turkey eggs and poults every year, and the wet spring months don't help either.  Turkey numbers are way down in the last 5 years and the numbers are getting worse.

If you have a lot of turkey around, your predator numbers are probably low, for now.  Once the predators catch up with the flocks, the numbers will fall fast.

I've logged my.place 4x since 1993  your habitat has changed,  the forests of the 90s are way more mature and open if habitat isn't worked on there, grass nesting and bugging fields are either now brush or someone's manicured food plot. So add to the marginal habitat ( especially nesting and bugging)  and all the other factors you have listed have even a larger effect

[Grouse]

Woods are selectively logged every 8 years here and the farms are still the same.  You wouldn't be able to tell any difference in the habitat from 20 years ago.