The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is asking the public to report if they see wild turkey hens with their babies as a part of a multi-state preservation effort.
This is the third year for Michigan’s wild turkey brood survey. Since its launch, people reported over 25,000 hens, 11,000 male turkeys and 65,000 babies in Michigan, according to the DNR.
The public can submit their observations at the DNR’s website until August 31.
Adam Bump, the DNR’s upland game bird specialist, said people can report male turkeys as well, but the research is mostly looking at female turkeys with babies because it helps them to get an idea of how many turkeys are being produced each year in Michigan.
“It's helpful for us to monitor it, to make sure nothing unexpected happens,” he said. “It helps us keep track of turkeys, make sure they're doing okay, look out for any red flags of population problems, and that helps us inform management what kind of decisions we're going to make related to turkeys.”
But not all states have a stable wild turkey population. Over 20 states are now involved in the effort to survey their populations.
“The southeast states, we're seeing declines in turkeys,” Bump said. “So it raised some concerns that maybe turkeys were declining across the country. So it brought up a stronger need for better information about the turkey population here.”
Wild turkeys have been significantly declining across the South and Midwest over the last 10 or 15 years, according to the New York Times. For example, in Oklahoma, researchers monitored about 60 turkey hens with babies and found that none of their offspring survived past two weeks.
Gary Maas, the president of the Michigan Wild Turkey Hunters Association, said he has already seen about 50 to 60 turkeys this year.
When it comes to hunting, Maas said he’s been successful at harvesting one as well.
According to the DNR’s Spring Turkey Hunting Regulations, hunters are allowed to harvest one bearded turkey per spring.
“Twenty, 30 years ago, you had to be darn near a professional turkey hunter to find one and to call it in, because there weren't that many of them,” he said. “There's a lot more of them these days.”
Wild turkeys are becoming a nuisance in urban and suburban areas because they eat from bird feeders, get used to people and can be aggressive, Bump said.
“The urban turkey problem is a developing one,” Bump said. “It's newer, and we're exploring different types of ways that we can reduce those kinds of interactions that turkeys are having.”
Bump encourages people to avoid feeding wild turkeys so that they don’t learn that people’s yards are a place to come and eat.
Wild turkeys are a native species to Michigan and have a long history in the state. Bump said their population was only recently reintroduced during the 1950s.
“Around 1900, in that general time frame, we lost all the turkeys that were in Michigan, so that's called extirpated,” Bump said. “That was due to habitat loss and to unregulated hunting.”
After a successful reintroduction, Michigan's wild turkey population started to grow quickly in the early 2000s and has been stable for the past 10 to 15 years, Bump said.
Bump said in the future, he anticipates Michigan having a stable wild turkey population.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is a financial supporter of WCMU. We report on them as we do with any other organization
