Pa. Game Commission seeks reports of turkey sightings this winter
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Have you seen a flock of turkeys lately?
Inquiring minds want to know.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has requested that residents report sightings and locations of wild turkey flocks through March 15. The organization intends to trap the birds and band them as part of an ongoing study.
Game Commission turkey biologist Mary Jo Casalena said the agency is looking to find out why wild turkey populations have been dramatically fluctuating over the past few years.
Along with banding, researchers will be attaching GPS transmitters to a sample of turkeys from four study areas that serve as different habitat examples. About 150 hens and 100 gobblers will be tracked through North Central, Western, Northeastern and Southeastern Pennsylvania.
The areas provide different habitats with different landscapes, turkey population densities and spring hunter and harvest densities that will be compared to determine an optimal habitat for wild turkey survival.
“This study is really management oriented,” Casalena said. “We want to see a successful habitat to emulate a better habitat. The GPS transmitters give us the location of the turkeys and their activity. We’ll be able to see where they are, if they’re walking, sitting or flying.”
The game commission has banded hens since 2022 and began banding gobblers in 2023. Along with attaching sample turkeys with a transmitter, researchers will be taking biological samples from gobblers to complete a collaborative disease study with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wildlife Futures Program.
The study will examine wild turkey activity during hunting season and share data with Penn State University to determine the severity of crippling loss, a term to describe an animal wounded by a weapon and unretrieved during hunting season.
Results from the studies will be used to determine causes of the trending population fluctuations and help researchers form a preventive plan.
“Results might show that it could just be a matter of adding more brush to the land — more brush provides more coverage from predators and better nesting opportunities,” Casalena said. “Or, down the line, the results could affect spring and fall turkey hunting seasons.”
All turkeys involved in the research will be released safely. Casalena said Ohio, New Jersey and Maryland are planning to conduct similar turkey studies using the same type of GPS transmitters.