COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (Turkeys For Tomorrow)

[TurkeysForTomorrow]

Announcing a project between the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Tennessee Tech University, and The University of Georgia

Turkeys for Tomorrow (TFT), has partnered with The Hunting Public to fund wild turkey research in Kentucky due to a noticeable decline in the Bluegrass state's population in recent years. Like many other states, Kentucky is interested in determining the root causes for the population decline and developing solutions that will reverse the downward trend. The project will consist of a three (3) year comprehensive study conducted in similar fashion to ongoing wild turkey research projects directed and controlled by Dr. Michael Chamberlain with The University of Georgia. The project will be led by Tennessee Tech University and work will be performed inconjunction with the University of Georgia and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.


The project will be focused but not limited to the following topics:

I. Analyzation of data collection in relation to gobbling activity.

II. Trapping turkeys for the purpose of GPS marking hens, banding male turkeys, and collection of blood for genetic analysis and disease testing.

III. Evaluating data to determine nesting and brood ecology including but not limited to survival, movement, habitat selection, etc.

IV. Analysis of female turkey survival.

V. Determination of causation related to female turkey and nest mortality.

VI. Observation of seasonal habitat selection and space use.

VII. Determination of male turkey harvest rates.


"There are several things that TFT support will allow that are currently not part of the study," said Dr Michael Chamberlain. "One, we could purchase additional GPS units and place them on males which would provide valuable information. The new units we're using allow us to detail aspects of behavior, such as the precise time a bird flies down and goes to roost, that were previously impossible to detail. Two, we could greatly expand the disease testing to do toxicology work that would greatly improve our inferences to include not only pathogens, but other potential problems in the environment (e.g. neonics). Alternatively, receiving additional monies from TFT would simply allow us more flexibility when things go wrong and we have to fix trucks, replace atvs, etc. – things that pop up in every study and cannot be budgeted for at the onset."

"Turkeys For Tomorrow is constantly looking for opportunities to participate in research projects we feel beneficial to the reversal of the downward trend in wild turkey populations across the country," says Ron Jolly, co chair of Turkeys for Tomorrow's board of directors. "Dr. Chamberlain and the University of Georgia are at the forefront of wild turkey research and TFT is blessed to be able to help fund this project in Kentucky. We feel this Kentucky study expands the footprint of ongoing studies we are supporting in Alabama in conjunction with Auburn University and Dr. Will Gulsby. We are excited to partner with The Hunting Public , The University of Georgia, Tennessee Tech University and the state of Kentucky to help wildlife professionals search for solutions to problems facing wild turkeys."


The TFT Mission is CENTERED on RESEARCH

In the February of 2021 Turkeys for Tomorrow was granted non-profit status and begansearching for research projects that had the potential of answering the many questionssurrounding the decline of wild turkeys across the country. What began as one study, led by DrWill Gulsby and Auburn University, quickly morphed into a four-pronged initiative to answersome of those questions. A partnership was formed with the Alabama Wildlife Federation toprovide the initial funding. Almost one year later other partners have joined the effort and moreprojects are about to be announced. The following is Dr. Gulsby's report on the progress made sofar and what he hopes to accomplish as we move into the second year of this project. Dr. Will Gulsby:

We have collected just over 400 carcasses submitted by hunters as part of the male fertility and disease aspect of the study. These carcasses were submitted by around 160 unique hunters.

We've processed about 200 of those carcasses so far. Most look normal from a healthperspective, but there have been several birds submitted with obvious signs of disease. Samplesfrom all birds are being analyzed by the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, and we'll likely have those results back sometime in fall. The primary pathogens we are testing for include Lymphoproliferative Disease Virus (LPDV), Histomoniasis (Black Head), and commonparasites. We are also examining crop contents of all submitted birds to look at food resourceutilization. Carcass collections will continue for at least one more spring hunting season.
As part of the TFT/AWF study, we deployed 28 autonomous recording units (ARUs, songmeters, whichever name you prefer) across 4 private properties. An additional 50 ARUs have been deployed by our partners at the University of Georgia (Dr. Mike Chamberlain's staff) on amixture of public and private lands. Access granted by Alabama Wildlife and FreshwaterFisheries allowed ARU placement on public lands.

Next month we will start collecting habitat data in the areas surrounding each ARU on both private (landowner access) and public (WFF access) to determine the relationship between property and landscape characteristics and gobbler abundance. ARUs will be deployed for a minimum of two more years.We are monitoring a total of

24 hens across two properties using GPS transmitters. For each of these hens, we will determine:

I. Nest timing and success

II. Nest site habitat selection and its effect on success

III. Poult survival

IV. Brooding habitat selection

Our goal is to add a minimum of 20 hens to the sample next year. We will also work to GPS tag 10-15 gobblers in year 2 to get a better idea of male survival on private lands. Finally, we have partnered with Dr. Steven Ditchkoff from Auburn University and the AlabamaFarmers Federation to determine the effects of feral hogs on wild turkey populations. More onthat project in the next newsletter. Jim Ronquest, co-chairman of Turkeys for Tomorrow's board of directors, commented: "It's veryexciting to see the progress being made in Alabama with this research. We are blessed to havegreat partners who are willing to step up and see this research through. Even more exciting is tosee the national interest in finding answers to questions that might help reverse the downwardtrend in wild turkey populations all across the country. I am proud to announce a new initiative inKentucky today. In the next few weeks look for more news on other research being announced in more states. Join us, and help us help wild turkeys!"

[eggshell]

Welcome to the forum and I am certain there will  be a lot of interest in the research from members. Keep us updated. Perhaps we can even get the site to post a link for donations. Do you have a link for an annual fiscal and project report, if members are going to be asked to give then they should expect transparency and accountability.

[Tom007]

Welcome, great info.......

[deerhunt1988]

Glad to see THP giving back some of the profits they've made by exploiting our public lands and state agency budgets. After all the public land opportunities they've helped reduce (most recently in TN, right after being paid by TWRA), the very least they can do is throw a little back after screwing public land hunters across multiple states in the U.S.

[Bolandstrutters]

Welcome!  It's great to have another organization around to help protect the valuable resource we all love.  With that being said, aren't most if not all of the studies mentioned already taking place in other areas?  At what point do we move away from study after study and actually invest in solutions?  I'm all on board with determining the root cause, but for the most part don't we know that habitat is the main issue?  Why not invest every dollar into habitat improvement projects at this point?

[ChesterCopperpot]

This is great news all around but out of curiosity what makes a state get chosen for a study like this? Is it the willingness of the state wildlife agency? Cooperation and funding from the state? Or is the data showing a state like Kentucky or Alabama has been hit harder than other states?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eggshell]

Welcome!  It's great to have another organization around to help protect the valuable resource we all love.  With that being said, aren't most if not all of the studies mentioned already taking place in other areas?  At what point do we move away from study after study and actually invest in solutions?  I'm all on board with determining the root cause, but for the most part don't we know that habitat is the main issue?  Why not invest every dollar into habitat improvement projects at this point?

Let me add a few thoughts to this. Having spent 30+ years working for a state wildlife agency and being involved in many research and managemnet projects I can add a perspective that not every sportsman may have.

First, I both support research and I am also quite critical of it, especially when it is University driven. Universities are first and foremost degree mills and that is often their primary push. They attach grad students to these projects with professor guidance, but what they are after is publishing as much as real world fixes. Design is everything in data collection and the best research is done with Agency oversight on methods and design. I saw this first hand over the years and saw a lot of money spent on worthless methodology and I have stopped research cold when I saw incompetence. I once stopped a $100,000.00 check until the idiot grad student was removed and the methodology fixed. However, it's not all bad. Universities can solicit outside funding that is hard to get for Agencies. They can also do things agencies can't and they have a rich reservoir of resources in students. They just need oversight as to staying on course and doing it responsibly. So it is important to have the transparency and oversight of professionals in the field, as well as public constituents. recruiting public input is a good model, but not always needed. Yes state and federal agencies are constantly doing these things and have developed answers to all the target questions in this study, but there is also one profound truth. That truth is, things change and when you see change it is wise to see why the change is happening. Have the base parameters changed and is the old knowledge base now applicable? State agencies are usually grossly undermanned and restricted as to how much research they can do.

On the surface I would support this project and the fact at least one state agency (Kentucky ) has oversight is a good thing. In good faith I would like to see the proposal and more detail on methodology. Bad research is wasted resources and sometimes actually compounding to a problem, so it needs a ton of review. This is where outside parties can add strength to a project. My experience is most of the universities have noble goals, but their primary mission is to produce paper ( get studies published), because this brings money and students and that is their primary industry. Published paper all counts, good or bad, to them. Of course good paper is like striking gold. As someone who has been part of an internationally published research paper, I do have a little insight.

chesterCopperpot- Kentucky probably ponied up money, that is why they are in it, but it is also becasue they have identified a problem related to the study. In most cases if you got money to spend you are welcomed with open arms, so my guess is funding is primarily why they have joined. Other states may already be in also.

[arkrem870]

Glad to see THP giving back some of the profits they've made by exploiting our public lands and state agency budgets. After all the public land opportunities they've helped reduce (most recently in TN, right after being paid by TWRA), the very least they can do is throw a little back after screwing public land hunters across multiple states in the U.S.

Likely fundraising through their social media channels. Buy their merchandise and they will donate $5 kinda deal.

Why they'd partner with them is beyond my comprehension.  Immediately makes me skeptical of TFT. When someone exploits a public resource for profit changing the fabric of public land turkey hunting through increased pressure and regulation it's not to be celebrated.

[Burney Mac]

Glad to see THP giving back some of the profits they've made by exploiting our public lands and state agency budgets. After all the public land opportunities they've helped reduce (most recently in TN, right after being paid by TWRA), the very least they can do is throw a little back after screwing public land hunters across multiple states in the U.S.

Likely fundraising through their social media channels. Buy their merchandise and they will donate $5 kinda deal.

Why they'd partner with them is beyond my comprehension.  Immediately makes me skeptical of TFT. When someone exploits a public resource for profit changing the fabric of public land turkey hunting through increased pressure and regulation it's not to be celebrated.

My thoughts as well

[Paulmyr]

Not sure there could be a bad case made for the collection gps tracking data. With the addition of Aru's (song meters) being deployed there's no limit to the amount of studies you can do. Once the data is compiled it's there for ever you just need algorithyms to tease the info your looking for out of the data. If your looking for info on habitat preferences, nesting activity, or even gobbling trends on public versus private Its really a no brainer for the future of wild turkey study.

[Dtrkyman]

Good to see these projects taking place.  I understand why they are employing the song meters, people want to hear gobbling.  However they provide zero info in regard as to why there are less turkeys, I think that money would be better spent on different things.

Also they already have a good amount of data with those meters, seems like they are just a cool toy for kids to play with!

They should start a project where all the money goes into buying traps, then have all the "grad" students trap nest predators for a few years and see what happen then!

Of course it is easy for all of us to pick at it from the bleachers.

[eggshell]

That is true Paul, I hope they set it up right. I was part of setting up a statewide database of information way back in the dark ages of tech. It took us two years to build the entry forms, indexes, queries and so forth then enter the historic data . Today's programs can do that in a fraction of the time. All you need is reliable data collection. For example, You can take the database we built and ask for a specific report that shows you what happened over the last 50 years on a specific site and species. This should really yield some good info, but it's got to be done right.

[Paulmyr]

From what I'm reading here. It sounds like they are expanding on the data  already being collected by Mike Chamberlain by adding more ARU's and gps tracking to get data from other states.

[hootgobbleyelpgobble]

Glad to see THP giving back some of the profits they've made by exploiting our public lands and state agency budgets. After all the public land opportunities they've helped reduce (most recently in TN, right after being paid by TWRA), the very least they can do is throw a little back after screwing public land hunters across multiple states in the U.S.

My first thoughts as well.

[Greg Massey]

VERY interesting, good to see this happening...