What’s happening to our precious Turkey’s

[Tom007]

20022, a tough year in the North East. I hunt NJ, and NY every year. I spend at least 25 days a field each spring  hunting, and about 3 weeks pre-season scouting. I did have a successful season, but I sure worked very hard. I definitely have seen a decline in the last 2 years in our populations. Encouraging news is I did call in some Jake's, and numerous hens. I even saw a hen with 9 chicks. I stopped into a local sport shop in NJ today for some Fly Fishing leaders. I chatted with the owner about the Turkey season. He did say hunters were complaining about a lack of turkeys. He told me a concerning story about a fish & game person showing him a series of videos of Turkey poults he recorded in the past few weeks. The first one shows a hen with 8 poults. A few minutes later, he shows him a bear chasing the hen, and scattering the poults. The next video shows a fox with a poult in it's mouth. Are predators causing the down trend in the population, is it the mature habitat/woods making it easy for predators to get the poults? Is it a combination of both, or is there other factors in play? Would love to hear your thoughts and input. Thanks....

[Dr Juice]

I hunted in NY this year and the numbers are definitely declining. I did score on the 2nd day, but it was the worst season that i have experienced in the last 30+ years.

[Greg Massey]

In my area the amount of gobblers gobbling was down , but gobblers were around. I did see a large amount of Jake's and hens this year. I'm not sure we can blame it all on the predators reason being i had coyotes come within 100 yards of myself with hens and Jake's out in the field and they really didn't seem to upset or bother the turkeys. Sure the turkeys watched them etc .. Sure i know predators do cause harm, but again i really don't know who or what to blame for declining numbers in some areas and states etc.  I think we do need to get back to tagging and radio transmitters on turkeys and trying to figure out what's happened to the population.

[Dtrkyman]

Generally speaking turkeys are on a down cycle throughout the country, a multitude of issues, starting with habitat and predators!

Hopefully it is a cycle and it turns around, but it is scary the way it is happening all over!

Time to get proactive however you can.  Lots of good research going on currently too.

[Tom007]

Great replies. Yes, it is concerning, and I hope we can turn it around......

[ChesterCopperpot]

Tough season for me. Still successful but worked for it. Gobbling was way down as reported elsewhere. Don't know why that'd be. Early season was a whole lot of low pressure overcast weather but even on the good days they were quiet. As far as overall population decline, it's that whole death by a thousand cuts: predation, nest raiders, disease, habitat loss, etc. But I'm pretty convinced the greatest impact over the past few years has been made by us, by hunters. I don't see how you can have places where there is a known >80% harvest of adult gobblers and couple that with hens having gone from four to five poults per hen to one poult per hen survival rates and then look dumbfounded when the numbers go down. It's a lot of things. But I wholeheartedly believe the biggest factor is us and that there's a whole lot of state agencies more interested in money than management.


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[Tom007]

Tough season for me. Still successful but worked for it. Gobbling was way down as reported elsewhere. Don't know why that'd be. Early season was a whole lot of low pressure overcast weather but even on the good days they were quiet. As far as overall population decline, it's that whole death by a thousand cuts: predation, nest raiders, disease, habitat loss, etc. But I'm pretty convinced the greatest impact over the past few years has been made by us, by hunters. I don't see how you can have places where there is a known >80% harvest of adult gobblers and couple that with hens having gone from four to five poults per hen to one poult per hen survival rates and then look dumbfounded when the numbers go down. It's a lot of things. But I wholeheartedly believe the biggest factor is us and that there's a whole lot of state agencies more interested in money than management.


Great info Dave. Hopefully the wildlife divisions will realize what's happening and come up with measures to help stabilize and bring our resource back.....

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[falltoms]

I'm a trapper, the last 5 years or so the fur market has been on a downward spiral. Which in turn discourages trappers, and leads to more predators.
I seen more than a few raccoons this spring, that I'm sure we're searching for turkey nests.
Russia and China are the biggest consumer of raccoon pelts, and with their economy being in the tank for the past 5 to 10 years or more, it's not helping the turkey population. Of course they are not the only predators of our grand bird, but raccoons are the most trapped predator in our country.
Also with the anti trapping community putting pressure on certain states, to pass rediculous laws against trapping only adds to the problem.
I'm not blaming it all on predators alone, but my opinion is that they are one of the biggest problems

[lunghit]

Strange thing is here on Long Island we have an exploding population. They are proposing the first ever spring season next May. I see turkeys all over the place now, they even roosted on my shed roof a few weeks ago. The one thing we don't have is coyotes, fishers, bear and other predators. The only predators we have are fox, hawks and cars lol. So maybe an over abundance of predators is the reason.

[Sixes]

Sounds like some of you northern guys are starting to see what we have been seeing in south for the last 5-7 years.

Sudden declines for no explained reasons and not just Toms missing but the hen population is on a downward spiral.

I saw a huge healthy population over a 10,000 acre private plantation go from boom to bust in a year and get worse the following year and hunting pressure is basically nonexistent.

At the time, I blamed it on the hens getting some kind of disease from the use of chicken manure (they switched from liquid fertilizer to using the manure) and I still think that started the problem. At the time of the big population, it was common to see flocks with a dozen or more hens and several gobblers all over the place and it changed all at one time.

Something killed the hens and now instead of a bunch of hens having a bunch of poults every year, it now has very few hens, so the poult production is a lot less and it is much tougher for poults to survive predation. If the woods are full of little turkeys, more will survive than if there are just a few poults.

The problem I see now is that the population cannot explode back due to a lot less hens and unless we have some great hatches 3-4 years in a row, the population will never come back.

[ChesterCopperpot]

Strange thing is here on Long Island we have an exploding population. They are proposing the first ever spring season next May. I see turkeys all over the place now, they even roosted on my shed roof a few weeks ago. The one thing we don't have is coyotes, fishers, bear and other predators. The only predators we have are fox, hawks and cars lol. So maybe an over abundance of predators is the reason.

The other thing you don't have is a spring season. We're the most effective predator.


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[mikejd]

Where I hunt in NY it has been declining bad for the past 5 years or so. I only heard 2 gobbles all season and never saw a bird. I hunt with my dad and brother and neither of them heard a single bird. I hunt pretty big
parcels of land and usually cover 8-10 miles a day(tracker on onyx). The 2 gobbles I did hear gobbled on the rooste 2 times and never again all day. I am not sure what to do going forward. I am looking into new areas.
I know up north the population is actually growing.

[Zobo]

Strange thing is here on Long Island we have an exploding population. They are proposing the first ever spring season next May. I see turkeys all over the place now, they even roosted on my shed roof a few weeks ago. The one thing we don't have is coyotes, fishers, bear and other predators. The only predators we have are fox, hawks and cars lol. So maybe an over abundance of predators is the reason.

My parents bought a house in Montauk in the 1960, I grew up hunting duck in the salt marshes and and pass shooting divers and sea ducks on the beach sandspits and bars. NEVER saw any turkeys anywhere in that region for decades. Think they released some out there in the early 90s and they took well. I see turkeys in Suffolk County now when I go out there, which is infrequently. I really can't imagine hunting out there now, it's gotten so bought out and built up in a bad way if you ask me. But other parts of Suffolk might be ok for a well managed spring hunt.

[WV Flopper]

 To the OP's question; IDK!

I think there are many reasons for these declines and in some areas it may not be the same as in other areas. Se areas are not declining at all.

I hunt a fairly large hunting club, it comprises of +-62,000 acres. It has a lot of paying members, 2500+ I think. Kids 18 and under are in, full time students are in, wives, husbands, as long as there is a paying member in the house hold.

A lot of these guys are not turkey hunters, some just ride ATV's, fish, camp, deer hunt, whatever... Some of the places you may hunt are packed with people, some have no people, you get the drift.

I typically try to stay away from the hot spots and have worked to find some secluded areas that I frequent. This year there where little turkeys in my areas. Very little actually! Now, you may say it is because of a decline in population??? But, a friend hunts 5-7 miles from me, same club, and was covered up in toms all season?

For this property and where I hunt it, the only explanation I have is the winter flocks did not break up early enough and move into my hunting areas. That's all I can come up with.

At my house, where I have very limited amount of ground to hunt. I had a 52 bird winter flock within a quarter mile of my house for 4 months, visible. When they busted up they didn't move far at all. I could hear birds 360 degrees from behind my house on the ridge, couldn't hunt most of them, but they didn't go far.

Point being, what does the guy down the road from my house think that hasn't heard much? Especially, when I could hear 6-8 from my house in a morning?

Just something else to think about.

[lunghit]

Strange thing is here on Long Island we have an exploding population. They are proposing the first ever spring season next May. I see turkeys all over the place now, they even roosted on my shed roof a few weeks ago. The one thing we don't have is coyotes, fishers, bear and other predators. The only predators we have are fox, hawks and cars lol. So maybe an over abundance of predators is the reason.

The other thing you don't have is a spring season. We're the most effective predator.


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Yes that is true.