Last year we met with Drs. Mike Chamberlain and Patrick H. Wightman at the NWTF’s annual national conference with some pressing questions about wild turkeys: Were bird numbers still declining?Did the harvest have an impact on the turkey population?It’s been a whole year and another spring devouring season since this interview, and as the situation around those birds is constantly evolving, we wanted to bring Dr. Chamberlain back. widely known as the Turkey Doctor, for up-to-date information on the status of the wild turkey. Chamberlain had just finished his hunting season with fresh observations of where the turkeys were and where they were headed. Here’s our Q&A, adding their big picture for 2024 and beyond.
Chamberlain: It’s over, but I’m tired. I travel a lot. I like to move on to other places, and in fact, I haven’t hunted a single day in my home state of Georgia this season. I’ve hunted in places I’ve been for several years. In other words, the turkey population looked solid: about the same number of birds as it had found in recent years. In others, it was evident that the number of birds was still declining. I also saw a lot of hunting pressure, which is consistent with what I heard from other people on social media and while chatting with friends. I think what you saw was a massive increase in Covid activity, and while some of that has subsided, turkey hunting is still a popular activity.
Chamberlain: I think it depends on where you’re at. The trends seen over the past two decades in the Southeast are still there and no dramatic increase in population has been reported. But there are some clever symptoms in some places. In Arkansas, for example, turkey populations seem to have started to increase a bit in recent years. Harvest tends to increase, as does productivity. But in the regions where the most declines have been documented — the South and Midwest — they’re not out of the woods yet.
Chamberlain: It took us a while to identify the declines that we were talking about last year, because there’s no dramatic sign in the year-over-year knowledge that gives us clues. You have to take a look at some of the knowledge sets over the course of a decade. realize that something is wrong. Since last year, I don’t think anything has given the impression on our radar screen that we’re moving in one direction or another.
Right now, more studies are being done on wild turkeys than at any other point in my career, and that says a lot about the interest and fear that is being created. But studies take time. It takes time to get the data, collect it, summarize it, and make sense of it. I know that as human beings, we don’t need to wait. We need answers yesterday. But science doesn’t work like that.
Chamberlain: What gives me hope is that there are many studio projects underway that aim at the same goals. In many cases, [researchers] use the same generation and methodology, which allows knowledge to be compared from one study to another. I see a massive collaboration that I didn’t see 20 years ago.
Large studies are being done in several states, all the work is standardized, which provides agencies with really robust knowledge sets. Research is being done lately on every imaginable topic you can imagine, from breeding, calculating the number of birds, possible diseases, and how the harvest can influence turkeys. This gives me optimism that we will find the kind of answers we want in the coming years.
Chamberlain: Obviously we see that most poults come from a very small percentage of hens. We still don’t know exactly why. It turns out that hens adopt two other strategies: some prioritize their own survival, and there’s a much smaller segment that prioritizes reproductive success, and it’s the hens that make up the maximum number of poults.
Chamberlain: They’re the same chickens. We have made this clear in the articles we have published. I don’t know the exact number, however, it’s pretty much like if a hen hatches chicks this year, she has more than a 60% chance of hatching again next year. A hen is not born this year, its probability of being born next year is less than 10%.
Chamberlain: So far, the evidence suggests that there have been minimal effects on outdoor turkeys due to some very localized outbreaks that have affected a specific flock on a specific farm. But at this stage, it doesn’t seem to have a negative effect. on the population.
Chamberlain: Absolutamente. No think there’s no doubt that the average turkey hunter knows the bird better in general and is most familiar with the turkey game box. And I don’t think there’s any factor that’s at least partially similar to our ability. talk to others now in a way we couldn’t before.
Chamberlain: One important thing is to be willing to pursue the resource. Purchase hunting licenses and continue to invest resources in state agencies. We all want to be aware that in some spaces, turkeys might do well, but there are plenty of spaces where they aren’t. The scenario is complex and requires all of us to be willing to interact with each other and think outside the box. But I think it’s true: all turkey hunters want the same thing. We all wish we could chase this bird in the future, and we all wish we could know that we have left the resource in better condition than we discovered it.
Read more: Turkey Season 2024 Review: Oriental Devourers Recover, Bearded Hens, Late Devourer and Vienna Sausages
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