Rio crosses taking over!

[jims]

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I live on the Front Range of Colorado and also spend a great deal of time hunting eastern-central Nebraska and other midwest states.  When I first started turkey hunting 8ish years ago almost all of the toms I found in the foothills here in Colo had pure white merriam type colors.  The past couple years I've noticed more and more turkeys in the same foothills location have buff to dark buff tail feathers.  I used to find pockets of pure white tail feathered toms in Southeastern and Central Nebraska.  Slowly but surely it seems like pure white strains tend to be disappearing.

I'm wondering if others have noticed this same thing where merriam and rio ranges intercept?  Should we be concerned with rio-merriam crosses dominating ranges in history merriam ranges?  If this trend continues will the US slowly but surely loose their pure merriam strains?  It seems like states continue to re-stock turkeys and haven't been too terribly particular with blood lines?  Should we be concerned about pure merriam strains being on the edge of extinction?

[Cottonmouth]

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The place I hunt in Nebraska had Merriams released there back in the 80's. Not long after that, a neighboring reservation released easterns. 20 yrs ago I could find a few with white tips....now most are buff colored to darker eastern color tips. Seems like they are showing more eastern traits every year.

[GobbleNut]

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Yep,...hybridization is a fact of life for turkey hunters now that we have mixed all the paint colors together.  Pure subspecies will eventually fade into a distant memory with only remnant pockets of "pure" birds in the most isolated spots.  We have breached the geographic barriers that kept subspecies differentiation intact in the name of filling available habitat with turkeys.  ...Good for turkey hunters,...but bad for subspecies distinction. 

Oh well, the horse has dun been let out'a the barn,...ain't no goin' back,..so we might as well go huntin' and not worry about it.  If you are concerned about killing a "pure" whatever,...go to the center of the most distant habitat where the subspecies have not been put together already.

[Gooserbat]

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I live on the skirts of the natural Eastern-Rio line in Oklahoma.  I have by distinction Eastern birds, but sometimes a "blond" shows up. 

[Marc]

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I would have thought that Merriam populations would to some degree stay isolated due to their proclivity towards higher elevations?

Obviously there are going to be areas and habitat with come cross-over, with some degree of hybridization, but I would (have) suspected that valley areas would remain primarily Rio based while alpine regions would remain primarily Merriam based?

From observations about populations across the country, it seems that Rio's might be a more genetically hardy bird?  What about in areas with both Rio's and Easterns?  Which bird tends to genetically predominate?

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

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I would have thought that Merriam populations would to some degree stay isolated due to their proclivity towards higher elevations?

Obviously there are going to be areas and habitat with come cross-over, with some degree of hybridization, but I would (have) suspected that valley areas would remain primarily Rio based while alpine regions would remain primarily Merriam based?

I think that’s correct particularly for Merriam’s in their historical range.  Large expanses of unsuitable desert habitat separate the different Merriam’s populations in New Mexico, for example. Correspondingly, DNA studies have shown a much stronger variation in DNA with geographic distance amongst Merriam’s populations compared to Rio Grande and Eastern subspecies.  Given that, it’s also not surprising that Merriam’s tail band coloration is noticeably different between the Gila and Lincoln populations.  These two populations have been separated for a very long time.

[fallhnt]

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True Merriam have short legs. Colleration will very. Here are two jakes I wacked opening archery season in KS. Check the tail on the left. These birds were shot in the eastern 1/3 of the state.

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