blake
Life Member
NE Turkey population grows
CHADRON, Neb. - Loafing amid cottonwood trees, a tiny flock of wild turkeys wandered across a shallow stream, climbed the steep bank and unhurriedly strutted east.
Just as their distant ancestors did a half-century ago.
Fifty years ago, these few birds would have represented nearly half of all wild turkeys in Nebraska. Today, they're the fine-feathered legacies of a wildly successful program to restore wild turkeys to the state.
It all started 50 years ago this month - February 1959.
That's when the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission released 28 Merriam's turkeys in the Pine Ridge of northwest Nebraska. The birds were captured in South Dakota and Wyoming. Three juvenile toms and 17 hens were released on Cottonwood Creek northwest of Crawford, and three toms and five hens were set free on Deadhorse Creek southwest of Chadron.
In less than four years, biologists estimated, the Pine Ridge population had reached at least 3,000 birds, and stocking was under way in other natural ponderosa pine stands across Nebraska.
Today, wild turkey are found in each of the state's 93 counties.
Wildlife managers estimate that there easily are at least 100,000
gobblers in Nebraska. The spring hatch will at least double the
population.
In the 1980s, Game and Parks biologists still were stocking turkeys in scattered corners of the state.
They placed Merriam's with tail fans of white-edged feathers in the northwest, Rio Grandes with caramel-edged fans in south-central and Eastern turkeys with dark brown tips in the east. Hybrid birds established footholds in scattered sites.
Biologists thought that the state's turkey habitat was maxed out and the populations would plateau.
"We were wrong," said Kit Hams, the Lincoln-based Game and Parks
wildlife manager who keeps tabs on turkeys. "We've got immensely more turkeys now than 25 years ago."
Turkeys spread from pine forests to cottonwoods to cedars and common shelter belts as they adapted to Nebraska's diverse habitats. They're hardy. Nebraska winters and predators - coyotes and raccoons - don't wipe out populations.
"They'll move into town if they need to," Hams said.
The result has been unparalleled opportunities for hunters in recent years. Surveys indicate that Nebraska's turkey population has grown 500 percent since 2002. More than 70 days were added to this year's hunting seasons, including the unprecedented decision to allow turkey hunting during the rifle deer season in November.
Turkey hunting is a hot ticket in Nebraska - and there are an unlimited number of permits available again this year. Last spring, permit sales hit a record 33,922, and hunters killed 19,896 birds.
Wild turkeys are Nebraska's and the nation's No. 2 game animal. Only deer hunters outnumber turkey hunters. Nebraska's liberal hunting seasons, bag limits and open country attract hunters from across the nation.
"You can see more turkeys in a drive in just about any county in the state than hunters harvested in the early years," Hams said.
During the 1964 season - the state's first spring turkey hunt - 750 hunters checked in 130 birds.
Before the advent of hunting regulations and habitat management, turkey populations in Nebraska and across America were exploited nearly toextinction. The Eastern wild turkey was native to the state, but none remained by about 1915.
Nebraska has 40 chapters of the National Wild Turkey Federation, from the Wildcat Gobblers in Alliance to the Southern Platte Strutters in Omaha.
"We've brought the bird back," said Robert Abernethy, a wildlife
biologist at the national federation's South Carolina headquarters. "We don't want to lose it again."
PM
Ron Wyllie
Southwest Iowa IBA Area Representative
rwyllie@iowawhitetail.com