CHAPTER TWO The Wild Turkey
The wild turkey is an amazing and challenging game bird to hunt. It has very keen eyesight, able to see in color and notice even the slightest of movements. Turkeys can run fast, fly long distance, and swim if necessary. By learning the behaviors and abilities of the wild turkey, hunters stand a better chance of success when pursuing these shy and weary birds.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Upon completing Chapter Two, students will be able to:
Identify the physical characteristics of male and female wild turkeys.
Identify the sub-species of wild turkey found in North America.
Explain of the basic biology of the wild turkey.
Describe wild turkey behavior.
Identify the key components of wild turkey habitat in Pennsylvania.
Identify the types of wild turkey habitat in North America.
List several wild turkey management strategies.
Describe the North American model of wildlife management.
11 Pennsylvania Game Commission (January 2011) CHAPTERCHAPTER TWO TWO TheThe Wild Wild Turkey Turkey
The wild turkey is a shy, permanent resident of Pennsylvania’s woods and mountains. Infiltrating a flock of these big birds is no easy feat, and when the hunter or naturalist is finally discovered, he’s treated to a spectacle to how the flock breaks up. Turkeys flap upward on loud wings. Some run full tilt, heads extended on serpentine necks. Others sneak along through the understory. Eventually, quiet returns to the woods. And, with time the first tentative calls of regrouping birds break the silence.
Before a hunter can enjoy pursuing the largest game bird in North America, one must become familiar with the features, behaviors and characteristics of the wild turkey. Proper identification is important for turkey hunting due to gender harvest restrictions at certain times of the year and to ensure safe experiences while afield.
What Does an Eastern Wild Turkey Look Like?
Adult males, known as toms or gobblers, normally weigh between 16 and 24 pounds.
PGC Photo
Females, known as hens, are smaller than males and usually weigh between 8 and 10 pounds.
PGC Photo
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Feathers Both males and females have fleshy growths on Males: Gobblers have iridescent red, green, their heads copper, bronze and gold feathers. They use known as these bright colors to great advantage when ‘caruncles’. attracting females during breeding season.
NWTF Photo They both have snoods, fleshy protrusions that hang over their bills and can be extended or contracted at Females: Hens have drab, usually brown or will. gray feathers. They make great camouflage and hide hens when they sit on their nests.
PGC Photo The ‘snood’ of an Head adult male is usually much larger than that Males: Males have brightly colored, nearly of a female. featherless heads. During breeding season the color of their heads alternates between red, white and blue, often changing in a few seconds.
PGC Photo No one knows for sure what these growths are for, but both probably developed as Hens: A hen’s head is gray-blue and has some ways to attract small feathers for camouflage. mates.
PGC Photo
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Beard The longest beard on record is more A male turkey grows a cluster of long, hairlike than 18 inches long. feathers from the center of its chest. This cluster is known as the turkey’s beard.
On adult males, these beards average about 9 inches long.
10 to 20 percent of hens also grow beards. NWTF Photo
Legs The longest spurs Wild turkey legs are reddish-orange. on record are 2.25 inches long. They have four toes on each foot.
Male wild turkeys grow large spurs on the backs of their lower legs. These spurs are pointed, bony spikes and are used for defense and to establish dominance.
Spurs can grow up to 2 inches in length. NWTF Photo
The color of the bands in the tail varies by Tail subspecies. Wild turkey tails are usually 12 to 15 inches long and are banded at their tips.
Male wild turkeys fan their tails when displaying to attract a mate.
Difference between an adult male (tom) and a juvenile male (jake) turkey is found in the tail. All tail feathers of adult males are the same length. NWTF Photo Feathers forming the center of a jake’s tail are usually longer than the rest of the tail feathers.
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Comparing a Wild Turkey Gobbler to the... VARIOUS REDS, WHITES & BLUES MINOR CARUNCLES
SNOOD -fleshy protrusion, possibly used to attract mates The largest wild turkey on record weighed 37 pounds. DEWLAP - flap of loose skin
PGC Photo
MAJOR CARUNCLES - small, fleshy growths turn red during mating
...Wild Turkey Hen GRAY-BLUE COLOR -more drab than male SNOOD -smaller than male’s
DEWLAP - flap of loose skin
CARUNCLES
GRAY-BROWN PLUMAGE PGC Photo -more drab than male
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Sounds of the Wild Turkeys
Turkeys make a wide range of sounds. The following list is a summary of the common calls that can be heard. Students will receive more focused instruction on how to reproduce these sounds during the hands-on training event. Cluck The cluck consists of one or more short, staccato notes. The plain cluck, many times, includes two or three single note clucks. It’s generally used by one bird to get the attention of another. It’s a good call to reassure an approaching gobbler that a hen is waiting for him.
Putt
The putt is a single note, generally associated as an alarm. It could be several sharp or rapid notes and usually means they have seen or heard something, and are alerting others of the danger.
Plain Hen Yelp The yelp is a basic turkey sound. It is often delivered in a series of single note vocalizations and can have different meanings depending on how the hen uses it.
Tree Call The tree call is usually a series of soft muffled yelps given by a roosted bird. Sometimes it picks up in volume as fly down time nears. It may be accompanied by soft clucking and is generally acknowledged as a call to communicate with others in a flock.
Cutting of Excited Hen A series of fast, loud, erratic single notes is referred to as cutting. It’s a modified cluck and is a distinct, abrupt call with a somewhat questioning nature. It can be heard at a great distance and is PGC Photo often used by a single turkey looking PGC Photo for companionship.
Adult Hen Assembly Call The adult hen assembly call is a series of loud yelps used to assemble her flock or young poults.
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Kee Kee The kee kee is the lost call of young turkeys and variations made by adult birds. It’s often associated with fall hunting, but can be used successfully in the spring. A variation of the call, the kee kee run is merely a kee kee with a yelp.
Fly Down Cackle
The cackle is generally associated with movement. It can be heard when a bird is flying up or down from a roost, flying off a ridge, or flying To hear examples across a creek. A cackle of these calls, log usually consist of three to 10 onto the National irregularly spaced notes. It’s a PGC Photo Wild Turkey movement call, so use it Federation’s sparingly. website at: www.nwtf.org Purr Purring is a soft, rolling call turkeys make when content. It can usually be heard by feeding birds. This is not a loud call, but is good for reassuring turkeys as they get in close to your position.
Cluck and Purr The cluck and purr is a single note or notes often associated with flock talk or the feeling of contentment. It is sometimes amplified. It is a cluck followed by a rolling, almost staccato call.
Gobbling The gobble is one of the principal vocalizations of the male wild turkey and is used primarily in the spring to let hens know he is in the area.
Owl Hooting (Locator call) The eight-note hoot of the barred owl is often used as a call to locate gobblers in the PGC Photo early morning or late evening hours.
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Wild Turkey Biology North American turkeys, including the domesticated bird, belong to the single and highly variable species Meleagris gallopavo. Taxonomists recognize at least six subspecies; the variety found in Pennsylvania is known as the Eastern wild turkey and ranges the entire eastern half of the United States. Turkeys are gallinaceous, ”chicken-like” birds (order Galliformes), related to grouse, quail, pheasants and chickens.
Between 5,000 and 6,000 feathers cover the body of an adult turkey in patterns called feather tracts. A turkey’s feathers provide a variety of survival functions. They keep him warm and dry, allow him to fly, feel and show off for the opposite sex. The head and upper part of the neck are featherless, but if you look close, you can see little bumps of skin on the bare area.
The gobbler, or male turkey is more colorful. Plumage is an overall rich brown. In shadows,
PGC Photo turkeys appear black. In bright sunlight, their feathers exhibit a metallic glittering, called iridescence with copper, blue, green and mahogany highlights. A hen’s plumage is duller and not quite as iridescent to camouflage her with her surroundings. Her breast feathers end in a brown or buff band, while those of a gobbler are tipped with black.
Two major characteristics distinguish males from females; spurs and beards. Both sexes have long, powerful legs covered with scales and are born with a small button spur on the back of the leg. Soon after birth, a male’s spur starts growing About 10 to 20 pointed and curved and can grow percent of hens have beards. to about two inches. These sharp, bony spikes on the backs of their legs are used in fighting other males. Most hen’s spurs do not grow. PGC Photo Gobblers also have beards, which are tufts of filaments, or modified feathers called mesofilophumes growing out from the chest. These beards grow quickly for the first four or five years, then more slowly, until they’re about 12 inches long. Beards usually grow to an average of 9 inches. The ends may break off though, so beard length isn’t a reliable indicator of age.
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Physical Characteristics and Behaviors
Like most birds, turkeys have keen eyesight during the day but don’t see as well at night. Turkeys also possess keen hearing. They hide cleverly, swim with ease, but they usually rely on their feet to escape danger, fly an estimated 40-55 m.p.h. and can cover more than a mile while airborne.
The strides of chased gobblers have been measured at four feet and their top speed estimated at 18 to 25 m.p.h. Tracks vary somewhat by the age of the bird. A young tom for example, might have a shorter print than an adult hen. But any track larger than 41/4 inches from the back of the heel pad to the tip of middle toe, was probably made by a male.
In the evening, turkeys fly into trees to spend the night. They prefer the shelter of conifers during inclement weather due to the trees thermal insulating ability. In early morning the birds glide to the ground, call, and regroup for feeding.
Mating and Reproduction
During the mating season, beginning more toward the end of March in Pennsylvania, a male turkey changes physically. His fleshy crown swells and A flock of 6 to 40 turns pale, his caruncles redden and hang from his head, and he develops a birds may roost in thick, spongy breast layer containing oils and fats to help sustain him through the same tree or the breeding season. Toms gobble loudly in early morning and sometimes in in adjacent trees. late evening.
If hens are present, a gobbler will display by fanning his tail, erecting his feathers, and tucking his head back against his body. He will strut back and forth, hissing and dragging his wing tips on the ground. Rival males fight, each grasps the other’s head or neck in his bill and tries to shove or pull his foe off balance. The first bird to let go or lose balance gets NWTF Photo thrashed with wing and spur.
Year-old birds are sexually mature. Hens often mate during their first spring, but young males usually can’t compete with mature gobblers. A dominant male may collect a harem of 8-12 or even more hens. Males are polygamous. A gobbler mates with several hens and plays no part in nest site choice, brooding eggs or rearing young.
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In late April, mated females slip away from the flock. They choose nesting spots in wooded or brushy areas, near water sources and usually close to One mating is forest clearings or old fields. The nest may be located under the curve of a usually sufficient to fertilize an fallen log, concealed by vegetation or fallen branches or at the base of a tree. entire clutch. In most areas, nests can be found in a shallow dirt depression, surrounded by moderately woody vegetation that conceals the nest.
The gobbler’s sperm is stored in the hen’s oviduct, so that fertilized eggs may be laid up to four weeks after mating. A hen lays an egg nearly every day during a two-week period until her nest Foxes, bobcats contains 8-15 eggs. The average is 12 with and great horned owls prey on smaller clutches by laid younger birds. She nesting hens. won’t begin incubating constantly until after all eggs are laid. Eggs are oval and pointed markedly at one end. The smooth, dull shells PGC Photo Eggs are eaten by are colored pale buff and are evenly marked these predators with reddish-brown spots or fine dots. as well as mink, raccoons, The hen will incubate her eggs for about 28 days, occasionally turning opossums, black and rearranging them until they are ready to hatch. Young turkeys, called poults snakes, skunks, are covered with a fine, brownish fuzz and even at hatching have a wild turkey’s crows and red distinctive long neck and legs. After the young hatch, the hen broods them squirrels. until they’re dry and then if the weather is mild, leads them away from the nest.
Poults are easy game for predators, their main defense is to hide. They scatter and freeze at the hen’s warning call, remaining motionless until she sounds the all-clear. A Turkeys usually hen may feign injury to lure intruders away from feed in early her young. morning and in PGC Photo the afternoon. Poults need high-protein food, and the hen soon leads them to open areas where insects abounds. Newly-hatched poults must be ready to leave the nest within 12 to 24 hours to feed. Poults eat grasshoppers, crickets, other insects and larvae, tender greens, fruits and seeds, while When poults are about three adults will eat anything from acorns and weeks old, berries to insects and small reptiles. several family groups may Wild turkeys like open areas for feeding merge into a flock and mating. They use forested areas as cover of hens and from predators and for roosting in trees at PGC Photo poults. night. A varied habitat of both open and covered area is essential for wild turkey survival.
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Six-week-old poults are fairly strong fliers, and by autumn they’re practically self-sufficient. Birds of the year can be identified by their middle tail feathers, which are longer than the others. In adults the edge of the fanned tail forms an unbroken curved line.
In autumn flocks often contain several old hens and their young. Occasionally hens that have not raised broods, for a total of 40 or more birds. Old toms usually remain apart in pairs or trios. During early winter, family groups disperse and form new flocks by sex and age; hens, young toms and old toms.
Wild Turkey Food Sources In spring, turkeys eat tender greens, shoots, tubers, leftover nuts and early insects. As the weather warms up, they eat more insects, including grasshoppers, walkingsticks, beetles, weevils, dragonflies and larvae. They also consume spiders, harvestmen, ticks, millipedes, centipedes, snails and slugs. But even in summer, a majority of the diet, perhaps 90-percent is vegetable. A wide variety of plant species are eaten, as well as a number of plant parts, including fruits, seeds, seed heads, tubers, roots, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers and buds.
In fall turkeys eat mast (beechnuts, acorns); fruits (dogwood, grape, cherry, gum, thornapple); and seeds (grasses and sedges, ash, corn, oats, weeds). During winter they rely on seeds, nuts, and fruits left over from autumn, and on green plants, crustaceans and insect larvae found in and around spring seeps PGC Photo where ground water emerges along a hillside or in a flat. Temperature of this water is above freezing, so the seeps remain open all winter, providing food for turkeys and other wildlife.
A turkey often scratches for its food, kicking forest duff and leaves behind. If the bird finds an acorn, it picks up the nut in its beak, straightens its neck, and swallows. The nut is stored in the bird’s crop, a flexible bag in which juices and body heat work to soften it. Then the nut passes into the gizzard, an enlarged, thick-walled section of the food canal which contains small stones and gravel called grit. Strong muscles use the grit to grind down the acorn.
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Turkeys may range up to several miles a day in search of food and water, sometimes establishing regular feeding areas if left undisturbed. In autumn, hunters “read” the turkey scratchings to determine when a flock passed by, PGC Photo what size the flock was, and which way the birds were headed.
General Habitat Requirements Turkeys have shown more tolerance for fragmented habitat like wood lots, and human disturbance than previously believed, but they still depend on forested habitats and do best with limited human activity. Habitat diversity — varying habitat types and differing ages — is the key to good turkey habitat. Turkeys seem to do best with a mix of forested, actively farmed and PGC Photo reverting farmland habitat types.
A turkey flock uses an extensive area, several thousand acres during a year to meet its needs, so a small landowner shouldn’t expect to have a resident flock. However, anyone with forested land can do something to benefit turkeys, especially if neighboring landowners will cooperate.
Trees such as oaks, beech, cherries, etc. are most beneficial to turkeys Maximum mast when producing the maximum mast. production occurs when Landowners can manage their trees are 50 to woodlands for sawtimber by 100 years old. conventional even or uneven age silvicultural approaches and “pushing” young hardwood stands to maturity by culling out less vigorous and non-mast-producing PGC Photo trees.
Some woodland cuttings, which aren’t economical in terms of timber management can be made to allow more sunlight to reach grape, dogwood, greenbrier, hawthorn, viburnum and other food-producing understory species. Planting shrubs such as Asiatic crabapple and Washington hawthorne will provide abundant and persistent winter foods.
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Forest clearings are especially used by hens and poults. Here sunlight Spring seeps are penetrates the tree canopy and allows grasses and forbs to spring up, also important, increased plant life gives rise to increased insect life, and insects form a key as they provide insect and part of a young turkey’s diet. Thus, forest openings resulting from cleared insect and vegetable food timberlands, old logging roads and logging camp sites, power line rights-of- over winter. way and old beaver meadows should be preserved, or planted with a grass- legume mixture if needed.
Wild Turkeys and Predators From death comes life in the scheme of nature. It is eat or be eaten. This food web begins with microscopic plants, extends through various levels of animals, depending on the ecosystem, and results in a series of predator-prey relationships. A predator lives by killing and eating Predators are usually other species, which are called opportunistic prey. Wild turkeys eat insects and feeders, looking other small animals, so they are for the easiest predators, in a sense, but they meal. become the prey of other birds, reptiles or mammals. NWTF Photo Predator-prey relationships have evolved over thousands of years. Normally, they have target species they prefer, but will take other species if given the opportunity. Prey species must produce many more offspring than what will survive, to offset the multitude of predators that use them for food.
Populations of a prey species maintain themselves because of the collective interests of the group, not by the survival of specific individuals. About half of the Individuals who are less suited to survive are cropped from the breeding turkey nests population as well as those that are old, sick or diseased, assuring the make it to population survives. Fit individuals maintain a healthy breeding population, hatchinghatching. which is the result of selection pressure by predators.
From the time an egg is laid, there is a predator looking for a ready-made omelet. Snakes, skunks, crows, ravens, opossums, raccoons, and coyotes, to name a few, are always on the lookout for a nest and an easy lunch.
These predators, along with hawks, owls, foxes, and other large predators will grab a young unsuspecting poult. All of these predators will take turkey eggs, poults or, under the right circumstances, adults; but most of their diet consists of small birds, rodents and rabbits.
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Role of Habitat
Habitat quality is also an important part of how a species survives pressure from predators. Early successional plant stages, or those that follow a habitat disturbance and need full sunlight, provide shelters for high numbers of small mammals including rats and mice, which are the normal diet of many predators. This benefits wild turkeys, too.
The location of these habitats, and their plant diversity can mean life or death to individual wild turkeys. Case in point: If the ground-level vegetation is sparse, the hen and poults become vulnerable to predators. On the other hand, if suitable habitat with good cover is available to the brood group, the poults have a better chance of living. This is the essence of what Aldo Leopold realized in the 1930s when he wrote that game management was “the art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use.” How we manage the plant communities, and where they are located, is critical to wildlife populations and it doesn’t matter whether you are dealing with songbirds or wild turkeys. Habitat quality and its distribution are more important than the number of predators.
Predator Management Controlling predator populations has always been a controversial issue. There are situations where it may have a place, such as an area with a newly established population of a rare species. However, making an impact on a predator population is very expensive and labor intensive. Even after going to the trouble of removing hundreds of wild turkey predators from PGC Photo an area over several years, it is doubtful that you would see a significant increase in the numbers of wild turkeys. This is due in part to the movement of more predators from surrounding habitats into the area.
Predators are important components of the ecosystem and really benefit the prey species in the long run. Wild turkey numbers have increased dramatically over the last two decades, while at the same time predator populations have also increased. While certain predators may need to be controlled in specific instances, the long-term solution to maintaining wild turkey populations at huntable levels will be dependent not on the predator control, but on man’s activities and good habitat management.
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The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation The North American model is a system where wildlife resources are scientifically managed by well-trained professionals so that sustainable wildlife populations can be maintained and held in public trust for all to enjoy. Unlike preservation, or ‘no use’, conservation efforts focus on ‘wise use’ of the resource. It is important to note that these measures have benefitted bird and animal species not designated as ‘game species’. Key features of the North American model:
1. Wildlife is a public resource. In the United States, wildlife species are held in common trust by the state for the benefit of all citizens. So, wildlife is owned by no one, but rather by everyone. 2. Elimination of markets for trade in wildlife. Buying and selling meat, feathers and other parts of game and/or nongame species was made illegal. This removed the negative impact market hunting had on those species. However, the sale of furbearers was permitted to aid in their management as a sustainable resource. 3. Surplus resource allocation by law. The public is directly involved in how surplus wildlife resources are allocated. States utilize laws and regulations to allocate surplus wildlife, not influenced by land ownership, social status or special privilege. 4. Wildlife is harvested for legitimate purposes. Laws are created and enforced to prevent reckless and wasteful harvesting of wild animals, those actions society finds unacceptable. 5. Wildlife species are considered an international resource. Countries need work together to prevent negatively impacting the others efforts. Focus on cross border cooperation, primarily on migratory species. 6. Wildlife policy supported by scientific study. Scientific research and study guides the continuous modification of state agency wildlife management policies and strategies, benefiting all wildlife. 7. Hunting as a management tool. Because anyone is afforded the privilege of hunting, not exclusive to the wealthy and privileged, it’s effectiveness as a management tool has proven to be the essential component necessary for the model’s undeniable success. 25 Pennsylvania Game Commission (January 2011) CHAPTER TWO The Wild Turkey
Wild Turkey Identification Quiz
Correctly identify the highlighted physical features in the pictures below using the word bank at the bottom of the page.
PGC Photo
Turkey Features Beard Fan Major Carnuncles Snood Dewlap Gizzard Minor Carnuncles Spur
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The Wild Turkey’s Range
NWMAP COURTESY OF NWTF
Wild turkeys are native to North America and there are five subspecies: Eastern, Osceola (Florida), Rio Grande, Merriam’s and Gould’s. All five range throughout different parts of the continent.
The Osceola subspecies is only found on the Florida peninsula, while the Rio Grande ranges through Texas and up into Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Rios are also found in parts of the northwestern states.
The Merriam’s subspecies ranges along the Rocky Mountains and the neighboring prairies of Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. And you can find Gould’s throughout the central portion of Mexico into the southernmost parts of New Mexico and Arizona.
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Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) The eastern wild turkey is the most widely distributed, abundant, and hunted turkey subspecies of the five distinct subspecies found in the United States. It inhabits roughly the eastern half of the country. The eastern wild turkey is found in the hardwood, mixed, and pine forests from New England and southern Canada to northern Florida and west to Texas, PGC Photo Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. It has also been successfully transplanted in California, Oregon, and Washington, states outside its suspected original range. L.J.P. Vieillot first described and named the eastern subspecies in 1817 using the word silvestris, meaning “forest” turkey.
Since the eastern wild turkey ranges the farthest north, individuals can also grow to be among the largest of any of the subspecies. The adult male, called a gobbler or tom, may measure up to four feet tall at maturity and weigh more than 20 pounds. Its upper tail coverts, which cover the base of the long tail feathers, are tipped with chestnut brown and tail tips with dark buff or chocolate brown. In contrast, the breast feathers are tipped in black. Other body feathers are characterized by rich, metallic, copper bronze iridescence.
Florida Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo osceola) The Florida wild turkey, also referred to as the Osceola, is found only on the peninsula of Florida. This particular subspecies was first described in 1890 by W.E.D. Scott who named it for the famous Seminole Chief, Osceola, who led his tribe against the Americans in a PHOTO BY LOVETT E. WILLIAMS JR. 20-year war beginning in 1835.
It’s similar to the eastern wild turkey but is smaller and darker in color with less white veining in the wing quills. The white bars in these feathers are narrow, irregular, and broken and do not extend all the way to the feather shaft. The black bars predominate the feather. Secondary wing feathers are also dark, and when the wings are folded on the back, there are no whitish triangular patches as seen on the eastern.
Feathers of the Florida turkey show more iridescent green and red colors, with less bronze than the eastern. The dark color of the tail coverts and the large tail feathers tipped in brown is similar to the eastern, but unlike the lighter colors of the three western subspecies. Its colorations and behavior are ideal for the flat pine woods, oak and palmetto hammocks, and swamp habitats of Florida. Adult females, or hens are similar to the males but duller and lighter colored throughout, except wing feathers, which are darker.
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The reproductive cycle for the Florida wild turkey begins only slightly earlier than the eastern wild turkey in other southern states. However, in southern Florida, turkeys gobble during warm spells in January, several weeks before actual mating. Egg laying is mainly in April with the cycle complete with peak hatching occurring in May.
Breeding behavior is triggered primarily by the increasing day length in spring, but unusually warm or cold spells may accelerate or slow breeding activity. This behavior begins while birds may still be in large winter flocks prior to separating as individuals or into small groups.
The Wild Turkey Records program administered by the National Wild Turkey Federation recognizes any turkey taken south of a line between Taylor and Dixie counties on the Gulf to a line between Nassau and Duval counties on the Atlantic as the Florida subspecies. Any turkey taken in any of the following 24 counties is considered an eastern subspecies: Baker, Bay, Calhoun, Columbia, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Hamilton, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Lafayette, Madison, Nassau, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Suwanee, Taylor, Wakulla, Walton and Washington.
Rio Grande Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) The Rio Grande wild turkey is native to the central plains states and got its common name from the area in which it is found — the life giving water supply which borders the brushy scrub, arid country of the southern Great Plains, western Texas, and northeastern Mexico. This subspecies was first described by George B. Sennett in 1879 who said it was PHOTO BY WYMAN P. MEINZER JR. intermediate in appearance between the eastern and western subspecies, hence its scientific name.
It is similar in general appearance to the other subspecies of the wild turkey and similar in body size to the Florida turkey, about four feet tall, but with disproportionately long legs. The Rio Grande turkeys are comparatively pale and copper colored. They are distinguished from the eastern and Florida subspecies by having tail feathers and tail/rump coverts tipped with yellowish-buff or tan color rather than medium or dark brown. Although there has been more variation in the shade of buff/brown in the tail feathers among Rio specimens, the color is consistently lighter than in the eastern or Florida birds and darker than the same feathers in the Merriam’s or Gould’s subspecies.
Adult females, called hens, are smaller in size compared to the males, called gobblers, and similar in color but duller. Hens average 8 to 12 pounds while gobblers may weigh around 20 pounds at maturity. Feathers of the breast, sides, and flanks are tipped with pale pinkish buff.
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The Rio inhabits brush areas near streams and rivers or mesquite, pine and scrub oak forests. It may be found up to 6,000 feet elevation and generally favors country that is more open than the wooded habitat favored by its eastern cousins. The Rio Grande is considered gregarious and nomadic in some areas, having distinct summer and winter ranges. They may form large flocks of several hundred birds during the winter period. It has been known to travel distances of 10 or more miles from traditional winter roost sites to its nesting areas.
Rios apparently choose the tallest available tree, regardless of species, by a stream or in a deep valley when selecting winter roost sites. Gobblers are more likely to use winter roosts throughout the year. When suitable roost trees are scarce or nonexistent, Rios roost on man-made structures like power lines, windmill towers or oil storage tanks. The climate in the Rio Grande range varies from tropical in Mexico to continental in Kansas, a much wider variation than the rainfall which ranges from 15 to 35 inches per year.
Even the Rio Grande turkey is not adaptable to treeless prairies or vast spaces between wooded areas. It lacks coloration for concealment and is too large to hide in grassy vegetation. But as the hardwoods from the stream zones encroached onto the grassland with the advent of livestock farming and the control of prairie burning, turkeys seemed to increase in numbers. Some of the changes in vegetation actually improved the habitat for the Rio Grande turkey providing food, cover and roost sites.
Rio Grandes have been introduced and have expanded wild turkey ranges into the more typically drier summer habitats of the lower elevations of the west in Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota and California. They have been successfully transplanted in areas of greatly differing habitat as well, from northern Idaho to Hawaii.
Merriam’s Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo merriami)
The Merriam’s wild turkey is found primarily in the ponderosa pine, western mountain regions of the United States. It was named by Dr. E.W. Nelson in 1900 in honor of C. Hart Merriam, first chief of the U.S. Biological Survey.
Within its suspected historic range in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, the Merriam’s was relatively isolated from the other PHOTO BY RONALD M. JONES subspecies of wild turkey. Current evidence supports the hypothesis that it was a relative newcomer to western American wildlife when the Europeans discovered it.
It has been successfully stocked beyond its suspected natural range in the Rocky Mountains and outside of the mountains into Nebraska, Washington, California, Oregon and other areas.
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Merriam’s are found in some habitat areas that, if altered by timber harvesting, overgrazing or development, populations may be lost. Their normal range receives annual rainfall amounts averaging between 15 and 23 inches.
Adult males are clearly distinguished from the eastern, Florida and Rio Grande by the nearly white feathers on the lower back and tail feather margins. Merriam’s closely resemble the Gould’s turkey, but its tail margin is not usually quite as pure white nor is the lighter margin of the tail tip quite as wide.
Its size is comparable to the eastern turkey, but has a black appearance with blue, purple and bronze reflections. The Merriam’s appears to have a white rump due to its pinkish, buff, or whitish tail coverts and tips. These tail feather tips are very conspicuous when the strutting gobbler appears against a dark background. The males exhibit black-tipped breast feathers, while the females, or hens, have buff-tipped breast feathers. The white areas on her wings are more extensive giving a whiter appearance to the folded wing. The head of the female is considered feather covered with smaller, dark feathers extending up from the back of the neck. Females lack the caruncles or fleshy protuberances of skin at the base of the front of the neck that are bright red on the gobbler, but may exhibit more coloration than hens of the other subspecies. Beards and spurs are generally considered secondary sex characteristics in males. Beards may be present on about 10 percent of the hens, however, they are thinner and shorter than those of adult males. Spurs on hens are uncommon, but when present, are usually rounded and poorly developed.
Merriam’s wild turkeys winter in low elevation ponderosa pine habitats and pinyon- juniper woodlands. Snow depth and duration, food availability, and the presence of suitable roost trees are key factors that determine where turkeys winter or if populations will survive. Snow conditions may force turkeys into riparian habitats well below the conifer zone. Here turkeys may use cottonwoods for roosting and may become dependent upon human-related sources of food such as barnyards, grainfields, silage pits or feedlots.
Gould’s Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo mexicana) The fifth recognized, but least known wild turkey subspecies is the Gould’s found in the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico as well as northern Mexico. It was first described by J. Gould in 1856 during his travels in Mexico.
Like the Merriam’s, the Gould’s is a bird of PHOTO BY DALE BOUNDS the mountains. It exists in very small numbers in Arizona and New Mexico along the U.S./ Mexico border, but is apparently abundant in the northwestern portions of Mexico. The Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Forest Service, the Centro Ecologico de Sonora, the National Wild Turkey Federation, and other agencies are working cooperatively to reintroduce a strong Gould’s population first into Arizona and then into other states where suitable range exists.
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The Gould’s turkey is the largest of the five subspecies and somewhat resembles the Merriam’s turkey. They have longer legs, larger feet, and larger center tail feathers than any of the other wild turkey subspecies in North America. Gould’s differ by having distinctive white tips on the tail feathers and tail rump coverts, which usually separate to show an “eyelash” appearance. Lower back and rump feathers have copper and greenish-golden reflections, not like the faintly iridescent velvety black found on the Merriam’s. Gould’s body plumage is said to be somewhat blue-green in coloration. Adult females have a less pronounced metallic greenish and reddish sheen and are more purplish.
The Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in Mexico are the center of the Gould’s turkey Mexican range, extending south from the U.S./Mexico border. Populations exist in Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco and Coahuila. In the U.S. Gould’s turkeys are found in the Animas and San Luis mountains of New Mexico and in the Peloncillo Mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. Mountain ranges where Gould’s are found orient north and south with elevations ranging from 4,500 to 6,500 feet in the U.S. and over 9,800 feet in Mexico. Turkey habitat can be rough with steep and rocky canyons.
Gould’s turkey range in the U.S. has a continental climate characterized by wide daily and annual fluctuations in distinct seasonal changes with hot summers and mild winters. Average annual precipitation is 18 inches—more than half falling between July and September. About 10 inches of snowfall in winter accounts for the rest. In Mexico climate conditions are about the same as those found in the U.S., however winters are colder and there is more snow in the higher mountains. Breeding behavior is triggered primarily by the increasing day length in spring, but unusually warm or cold spells may accelerate or slow breeding activity. This behavior can begin while birds are still in large winter flocks prior to separating as individuals or into small groups.
The Gould’s turkey has been studied the least and as a result, has the smallest amount of information available about it. However, new studies are underway in Arizona, New Mexico, as well as Mexico to help us learn more about this unique subspecies.
Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) There are only two species of turkey in the world; the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), divided into five distinct subspecies, and the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata).
While the 5 subspecies of the North American turkey can be found from northern Mexico throughout all the United States, except PHOTO BY WENDY SHATTIL Alaska and into Canada, the ocellated turkey exists only in a 50,000 square mile area comprised of the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, northern Belize and the El Petén region of northern Guatemala.
32 Pennsylvania Game Commission (January 2011) SUCCESSFUL TURKEY HUNTING!
The Yucatán Peninsula range includes the states of Quintana Roo, Campeche, Petén, and Yucatan, as well as parts of southern Tabasco and northeastern Chiapas.
The ocellated turkey is known by several different names that vary by Central American locale: pavo, pavo ocelado, or its Mayan Indian name, ucutz il chican. Very little research has been done on the ocellated and less is known about the ecology of this turkey than any of the 5 subspecies of North American wild turkeys, including the Gould’s (Meleagris gallopavo mexicana). The National Wild Turkey Federation, in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Hornocker Wildlife Institute, helped sponsor the first research project to trap and place radio transmitters on ocellated turkeys in Guatemala in 1993. Much of the information provided in this bulletin is a result of this NWTF-sponsored study.
The ocellated turkey is easily distinguished from its North American cousin in appearance. The body feathers of both male and female birds have a bronze- green iridescent color mixture, although females sometimes appear duller in color with more green than bronze pigments. Unlike North American turkeys, breast feathers of male and female ocellated turkeys do not differ and cannot be used determine sex. Neither male nor female birds have a beard.
Tail feathers in both sexes are bluish-gray in PHOTO BY HOWARD QUIGLEY color with a well defined, eye-shaped, blue-bronze colored spot near the end followed by bright gold tip. The tail feather spots are similar to those seen on peacock feathers, which led some scientists to once believe the ocellated was more related to peafowl than turkeys. In fact, these spots helped give the ocellated its name, as the Latin word for eye is oculus.
Much more information is needed regarding the ecology of the ocellated turkey. Population estimates in parts of its range indicate a decline in numbers over the last 20 years, especially in Guatemala and parts of the southern Yucatán Peninsula where widespread logging and dry season burning eliminate habitat and destroy nests. Uncontrolled market hunting occurring primarily during March, April and May could seriously impact local populations. Unfortunately, only Mexico has apparently discovered the benefits involved with implementing some hunting regulations, conserving the resource, and attracting nonresident hunters who bolster the economy of many small villages each year.
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Chapter Two Review
1. During the breeding season, the color of the male turkey’s head changes between red, white and ______.
2. True or False: Female turkeys can grow beards.
3. Two major characteristics distinguish males from females; beards and ______.
4. True or False: In the early morning, wild turkey groups fly down in different directions from their roosts in search of food, regrouping again just before dark ______.
5. True or False: In fall, turkeys eat green shoots, tubers, and seeds.
6. ______is the key to good turkey habitat.
7. As part of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, wildlife belongs to ______.
8. The ______wild turkey is found primarily in the Ponderosa Pine, western mountain regions of the U.S.
9. The ______turkey is found only in the Yucatan
Peninsula area of Mexico.
and no one; 8.) Merriam’s; 9.) Ocellated. 9.) Merriam’s; 8.) one; no and Answers: 1.) Blue; 2.) True; 3.) Spurs; 4.) False; 5.) False; 6.) Habitat diversity; 7.) Everyone 7.) diversity; Habitat 6.) False; 5.) False; 4.) Spurs; 3.) True; 2.) Blue; 1.) Answers:
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