On October 15, the state of New Mexico voted to remove Gould’s wild turkey from its list of threatened and endangered species. The unanimous vote took position at a normal assembly of the New Mexico Game Commission and crowned a recovery plan that began in April 2017. The resolution will allow New Mexico Game and Fish (NMGF) to expand hunting opportunities for the rarest of all wild turkey subspecies, which has been listed as threatened in the Land of Enchantment since 1974.
“We’re excited to see this removed from the list in the state of New Mexico,” Mark Hatfield, director of conservation facilities for the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), told Field.
“Gould’s local diversity covers southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona,” Hatfield said. “The NWTF has worked extensively with New Mexico Game and Fish and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to repair those bird populations in Mexico. The removal of Gould’s is a focus of attention. from NWTF’s partnership with New Mexico Game and Fish. While the Gould were completely wiped out in Arizona in the 1920s, a small remaining population held out in the remote mountains of New Mexico. But he only found out in the 1950s.
According to Chuck Carpenter, a district biologist with the New Mexico chapter of the NWTF, between 2014 and 2016, 60 birds were brought to New Mexico from neighboring Arizona. The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) gave the birds to NMGF in exchange for 40 U. S. antelope birds. Today, New Mexico is home to about 225 Goulds, while Arizona has about 1,200. The NMGF target for Gould’s population is 175, a number specified through the agency’s 2017 recovery plan. Recent maximum estimates exceeded this target by at least 50 individuals.
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The Gould is one of six subspecies of wild turkey in North America, and New Mexico is home to three: the Gould, Merriam and Rio Grande. Although Gould’s subspecies is the rarest of all subspecies, it is also the largest in size, with males weighing between 18 and 30 pounds on average. Gould have longer legs, larger feet, and a larger set of tail feathers than their counterparts. They also have a unique, more serious and flourishing gobbling, Carpenter said.
Carpenter said removal from the list will result in a slight accumulation of the already limited Gould’s turkey hunting opportunities that exist in New Mexico. Prior to the Oct. 15 vote, the NMGF issued only two labels for Gould’s turkey according to the year. It will become a typical hunt. It’s going to be consistent with what’s regulated because of this small population,” he said. “There will be 4 new labels in the design from the 2023 season. These tags will be valid for a spring season that runs from May 1 to 30, and will be an exclusive label for those lucky enough to photograph.
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