Predator populations—nest raiders and full-feathered turkey killers alike—are growing across the United States. To determine if their increasing numbers are a leading cause of wild turkey population declines, Turkeys For Tomorrow (TFT) has announced a groundbreaking study on predator impacts on nesting and poult-rearing success.
“What’s most important about this effort is that we are radio-tagging Rio Grande hens on a property that has been well-managed for habitat and for reducing predator numbers prior to nest initiation,” said TFT CEO Jason Lupardus.
Researchers from Louisiana State University (LSU) and Tennessee Tech University, in association with Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD), are partners in the program, along with Sitka and onX Hunt. The study’s goal is to determine the effectiveness of predator and land management in relation to turkey population trends.
Dan Braman, a TFT board member, owns Mellon Creek Outfitters and a large ranch near Refugio, Texas. It is the site where research is being conducted.
“It’s 115,000 acres, and it also [includes] habitat in scrub country and coastal prairie, where no research on wild turkeys has ever been done,” Lupardus said. “We’re hoping to demonstrate or find that, on well-managed properties where folks are focused on not only habitat but also the reduction of predators that impact ground-nesting birds, we’ll see positive results with our poult recruitment.”
Nicholas Bakner, a post-doctoral research associate at Tennessee Tech University, is coordinating work on the ground. He noted much of the previous research has been on landscapes, rather than predator management and attention to land management are combined.
“The tags we’ve just put out are on females at a ranch that’s highly managed,” Bakner continued. “It implements prescribed fire, discing, and other types of management strategies, coupled with intense predator management. Finding a ranch that does the combination of these things is really going to provide impactful research on the reproductive ecology of the wild turkey.”
The GPS tags also have accelerometer capabilities. They allow researchers to observe and analyze very specific behaviors of the bird and precise enough to monitor activity. The indicate whether the bird is sitting still on the nest, when it starts laying an egg and when it starts incubating.
“These GPS backpacks collect hourly locations and give valuable insight on where these individuals are roosting,” Bakner said. “We’re able to go out and identify nest locations and track hens during that critical 28-day period when they’re maneuvering the landscape with their brood. If a bird is on the nest, and a predator comes, you can see the activity amp up and that bird take off from the nest.”
