When we sit down to our traditional Thanksgiving dinners this coming Thursday, the plump, juicy turkey that we will feast on will be a store-bought bird, fattened and raised in a pen.
But in the wild, the turkey is in trouble: Wild turkeys in Georgia and elsewhere in the nation are declining at an alarming rate. Since 2004, reviews of hunting records, field observations and other data show that wild turkey abundance in the nation has declined by more than 16%, according to University of Georgia biologist Mike Chamberlain, one of the nation’s leading turkey experts. Georgia, he noted, is among the states with the greatest decline.
Across the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest, he said, researchers are seeing only about 22% nest success, which means that about 80% of the wild turkey nests in those regions fail. Of the nests that hatch, two-thirds of the broods are lost before they are a month old.
“All indications suggest that populations are continuing to decline, particularly in the (Georgia) Piedmont region,” Chamberlain said.
The reasons seem to be complex and multifaceted, including loss of habitat due to development, logging, invasive species and other factors; and destruction of nests and adult turkeys by predators such as raccoons and coyotes. Other issues, such as disease and hunting, also may be factors.
Wild turkey declines also could be a warning sign of ecosystem-wide problems. The wild turkey is considered an “indicator species,” whose presence suggests that a habitat is of good quality.
This is not the first time that wild turkeys have faced serious losses. The birds had become nearly nonexistent in Georgia during the early 1900s due to overhunting and intensive logging. But as forests regenerated in the 1930s and strict conservation laws and restoration programs later were implemented, wild turkey populations made a spectacular comeback, and today the bird is found throughout Georgia.
Now, though, biologists once again are worried about the wild turkey’s future.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be new on Wednesday. Mars is in the east and Saturn is low in the southwest at dark. Jupiter is high in the south at sunset. The Leonid meteor shower continues this weekend in the northeastern sky with about 20 meteors per hour after dark.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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