The results are in from the latest wild turkey observation survey. We speak with wildlife biologist Chris Kreh about the annual report and about North Carolina’s rebounding turkey population.
The populations of wild turkey are increasing across the state. That’s according to a survey from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Each year, the WRC conducts their wild turkey observation survey where volunteer spotters will record the number of turkeys they see in a two month period. Chris Kreh, the upland game bird biologist, says this year’s survey went from July 1st through August 31st.
“It consists of sending out a log, a data card that anybody that sees turkeys that anybody that’s interested in helping they record on there the observations that they have, and they break it down by whether it was a hen, a gobbler, or a polt. Then they send those cards in at the end of the survey period.”
The annual turkey surveys have been conducted since the late 1980s and Krey says this year they did it a little different.
“We also recruited some folks through an email alert and a media release that we did. And those new recruits actually didn’t get the traditional survey card. They were directed to an online application so they entered that same information for turkeys they were seeing, but they didn’t do it with that traditional printed card.”
Over 2,100 people from all 100 counties in North Carolina participated in this year’s survey. When compared to 2013, Krey says the number of participants increased 114%. He says this lead to a 73% increase in observations.
“In total, we’ve had a few little bit more than, greater than 50,000 total turkeys that were reported. So that’s an astounding number. To kind of put that number in context, in the late 1960’s, early 1970s, we probably had fewer than 2,000 turkeys in the entire state.”
In addition to their numbers, the range of wild turkeys have improved. In the 60s and 70s, turkeys were only found in small pockets of North Carolina. Now, they thrive in the mountains, the piedmont and the coastal regions due to hunting regulations.
“places that they’re a little less common tend to be because they haven’t been there quite as long. We had a restoration program where we trapped and released birds around the state into places that had good habitat and some of those places are still building, particularly in the piedmont and eastern part of the state.”
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission struggled to find turkeys to relocate during the early stages of their program. But as their populations grew, the restoration project gained momentum in the 1990s and since, Kreh says they’ve noticed a dramatic uptick in turkey observations.
The information that’s collected from the annual surveys is used to track the number of polts versus the number of hens in order to gauge how effective reproduction is that year. In 2014, productivity in the mountain and coastal region is estimated at 2 polts per hen. The piedmont region is slightly less at 1.7 polts per hen. Kreh says there are factors they can’t measure that affect turkey populations, such as environmental conditions, the weather, and predators.
“But this survey is a way to look at that each year, figure out how much turkey reproduction there was and kind of make somewhat of a prediction into the future on what that’s going to mean for turkey population overall in coming years.”
Krey was reluctant to estimate where turkey populations would be in a decade.
“I won’t try to look too far into the crystal ball”
But looking at data from the past decade, he says turkey observations and hunter harvest numbers have steadily increased.
“Some point, we will eventually fill up all the pockets of potential habitat in the state and reach some sort of leveling off period. Now whether we get there in five years, 10 years or 20 years, its kind of hard to say. But I think at least for the short term, we can expect the turkey population and the harvest numbers to do what they’ve done for the last decade or so.”
To view the 2014 Wild Turkey Summer Observation Survey report, go to publicradioeast.org. We’ve provided a link on our website.
