In Pennsylvania, the Game Commission has a turkey hen study under way.
Early this year, they trapped and fitted 100 hens from 4 different areas of the state with GPS transmitters to evaluate movement and mortality. As of the end of July, less than 50% of those hens in the study were still alive.
I knew nesting hen mortality was a thing. Am I the only one that's surprised it's THAT LARGE ????
In Pennsylvania, the Game Commission has a turkey hen study under way.
Early this year, they trapped and fitted 100 hens from 4 different areas of the state with GPS transmitters to evaluate movement and mortality. As of the end of July, less than 50% of those hens in the study were still alive.
I knew nesting hen mortality was a thing. Am I the only one that's surprised it's THAT LARGE ????
With GPS transmitters you'd think they could perform a few autopsies.
In Pennsylvania, the Game Commission has a turkey hen study under way.
Early this year, they trapped and fitted 100 hens from 4 different areas of the state with GPS transmitters to evaluate movement and mortality. As of the end of July, less than 50% of those hens in the study were still alive.
I knew nesting hen mortality was a thing. Am I the only one that's surprised it's THAT LARGE ????
With GPS transmitters you'd think they could perform a few autopsies.
That's the part of the study I'm waiting on, now. ........ CAUSES of the mortality. Yep.
Looks like a lot of states have done this. Texas, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Louisiana to name a few. Here's a video showing how those GPS transmitters are attached.
The lGPS had to meet several specifications outside of the normal size and structural requirements to be applicable for use on wild turkeys. The unit had to be able to perform in a variety of environments, withstanding damage from daily movements through multiple vegetative communities without compromising data collection. Spatial accuracy had to be high, such that locations could be tied to microhabitat features and hence demography. Our accuracy needs negated use of satellite telemetry because measurement accuracy would be 250 m at best. Finally, the unit had to be able to collect data for short-duration and highintensity bouts to evaluate factors such as disturbance to wild turkeys associated with hunting, as well as longer durations under lower intensity bouts so that individual and group variation in seasonal movements could be monitored.
Looks like the GPS was used soley for the purposed of evaluating individual and flock movement, and not for mortality studies. It doesn't speak to the reliability of the GPS in a predation situation. Nor does it speak to mortality at all.
It does speak to the findings that males were spending their entire days in small areas of a few hundred square meters. But that movements of thousands of meters to new areas coincided wth the start of hunting season.
In Pennsylvania, the Game Commission has a turkey hen study under way.
Early this year, they trapped and fitted 100 hens from 4 different areas of the state with GPS transmitters to evaluate movement and mortality. As of the end of July, less than 50% of those hens in the study were still alive.
I knew nesting hen mortality was a thing. Am I the only one that's surprised it's THAT LARGE ????
50% or more mortality isn't uncommon. Here is Virginia's comprehensive study. Mortality discussion starts at the bottom of page 8.
From thge Va DWER website on a Virginia and West Virginia combined study:
“The Wild Turkey Population Dynamics Research Project” was begun to determine the cause of low population levels and low growth rates in wild turkey populations in western Virginia. During the 5-year project biologists captured wild turkeys and attached radio transmitters to the birds to monitor their movements, survival, and reproduction. The study was part of a cooperative project with West Virginia and the combined project resulted in a study of more than 1,000 wild turkey hens, the largest single study ever conducted anywhere in the country.
By combining efforts with West Virginia, the research project was able to evaluate the impacts of several different fall hunting season impacts on survival rates. Four different season structures were evaluated including, no fall hunting, 4-weeks, 8 weeks and 9-weeks of fall hunting. Results of the study found no difference in survival rates of turkeys in the 8 and 9-week season in Virginia. Survival rates in Virginia averaged 48% in Virginia. Survival was 52% in West Virginia’s counties with a 4-week season and the area in West Virginia without fall hunting averaged 59% survival. Natural mortality accounted for 34% of the population losses in the study. Mammalian predators were responsible for most of the natural mortality. Foxes and bobcats were the most common predators of adult turkeys. Virginia hunters averaged taking 16% of the population whereas West Virginia hunters averaged taking 7%. Illegal mortality was surprisingly high, averaging 21% in both states.
Significant differences were found in annual survival rates that appear to be related to the availability of mast crops, namely acorns. Survival rates were higher during years with good mast crops and were much lower during years of mast failures. Hens monitored during the study for reproduction revealed surprisingly low recruitment. Only one-third of the hens were successful hatching a clutch and about half of those were lost during the first 4-weeks following hatching. The high reproductive potential the wild turkey is capable of producing was never achieved during the 5-year study; hens averaged producing only 1.5 poults.
The study concluded that Virginia’s longer fall season was adding mortality to the population, which lower survival rates. Low reproductive rates were not compensating for high mortality. High fall harvests, associated with mast failures, were resulting in lower densities and lower growth rates.
In West Virginia and western Virginia, illegal mortality accounts for more mortailty than legal hunting. Illegal mortality accounts for 3X the mortailty as does legal hunting in WV. In [western] Virginia, illegal mortality accounted for 1.3X more turkey deaths than legal hunting. Given that the majority of the wild turkey population is east of the Blue Ridge in Virginia, and most that is private land, the extent of illegal mortality may not be known. Illegal mortality killed 62% as many turkeys as natural mortality.
With a mortality rate that high....makes you wonder if some of it is not caused by the shock of being cannon netted and then fitted with a transponder.
With a mortality rate that high....makes you wonder if some of it is not caused by the shock of being cannon netted and then fitted with a transponder.
Was just talking to a buddy of mine yesterday about this very thing. He was talking to his state turkey biologist and he said turkeys stress inordinately more than other critters.........like waterfowl.
Again..... I'm very interested to see what causes of death this study reveals.
After it is all said and done we will not know anymore than we know now.....
The biological book written years ago...."The Wild Turkey in Virginia" by Mosby and Hadley published in 1943 should be required reading by any biologist studying the Wild Turkey.
Mortality rate is all explained in the book along with everything else about the Wild Turkey....in the last 75 to 100 years we have not learned anything new about the Wild Turkey.
When I bought my copy years ago I paid like 25 bucks for it.
DonniebOy it is one of two books a turkey hunter should read if you ever expect to know as much as I do about the Wild Turkey....
I'll give you a hint about the other book it was written by Charles Jordan in the late 1800s.
Here's another clue about the book all turkey books written after it used plagiarized information from it.
Several years back Tennessee put some transponders on some wild turkey's if I recall correctly a young gobbler was found dead about 10 miles north of where they put it on.
This is well beyond an Eastern wild turkeys normal home range....
Did the transponder put the turkey is so much stress that it was fleeing for it's life ?
I'm guessing you're referring to "The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting" by Edward McIlhenny. Basically a compilation of all of Charles Jordan's articles that were left unattended after his murder.
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