The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia
Monday, 03 July 2023 11:49

TWRA wants your data on Tennessee’s wild turkeys

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wild-turkey-008-Eric-Lowery.jpgAmerican wild turkey populations have recovered from historic lows. TWRA still needs help managing the modern populations.  Courtesy Eric Lowery via Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

TWRA wants you to help build research on USA’s second bird

NASHVILLE — Benjamin Franklin only joked (we think) about making the wild turkey the national bird, but this summer you can help Tennessee with research on the turkey’s national history and renaissance.

Turkeys and bald eagles both grace the state and Southeast and have a notably parallel history of climbing from dire straits nationwide. 

The bald eagle became the national symbol on the U.S. seal in 1782

Declaration of Independence signer Franklin said he would have preferred a different bird. While he may have been joking, he never lobbied for it publicly. His comments in a letter to his daughter, Sarah, have become infamous.

“For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him … the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” 

Since then the bald eagle has become a symbol, not just of the U.S., but also of successful conservation efforts. At one point the number of bald eagle breeding pairs fell to just 417. The Endangered Species Act protected them as one of its’ first species. There are more and have been off the list for over 10 years.

 

 

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wants your help observing wild turkeys in Tennessee this summer 

Wild turkeys faced a decline in population due to habitat loss and hunting, which began in the mid-19th century and the population hit a low in the 1930s and 1940s, disappearing from the states of New York and Vermont entirely. Thanks, in part, to conservation efforts including regulated hunting, they’ve not only thrived but live beyond their historical range.

TWRA’s done surveys of turkeys in the past, but this is just the second year the public’s been involved.

The survey began June 1, but you can still join. It runs through Aug 31.   

You can send in your observations of turkeys on an online form or an app

Last year, the public submitted observations of 35,924 turkeys with data from all 95 of the state’s counties, per a TWRA news release. More than 4,200 public observations met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis. The TWRA’s staff and partners count was 7,341 turkeys from 1,284 observations.  

“If we can keep that level of response up, year after year, even grow it a bit that’d be wonderful,” Roger Shields, TWRA Wild Turkey Program Coordinator, told Hellbender Press. He explained TWRA couldn’t observe every area of the state on its own, which is why it’s involving the public.

“We added the public as a way of getting it a little bit better and filling in the gaps,” he said. 

TWRA recommends before going out you learn how to spot the difference between gobblers (males) and hens (females) and the different ages of poults. There’s no official list of places to look, but rather people should record each instance they see a turkey or group of turkeys in Tennessee. The form will ask for the county in which the participant sees them. TWRA recommends bringing binoculars to get better details of the birds’ ages and sexes. 

The agency is looking at observations of wild turkeys to figure factors influencing trends in their population. These include nesting success, brood survival as well as annual number of poults born each year. 

In some parts of the state, Shields said, numbers have dropped due to loss of habitat. He said the overall population reached a peak in 2009 through 2010 and might not return.  

“We kind of overshot what the habitat, what the landscape could support,” he said regarding the population. “Turkeys in general are a cyclical species, they go up and down,” Shields said, adding that they can frequently build their numbers back after periods of decline. 

“I think there’s a bright future ahead for turkeys in Tennessee,” he said. 

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