Southwest hunters not gobbling up turkeys

Published Friday, December 28, 2007

JOPLIN (AP) - The number of wild turkeys taken during season harvests for Newton and McDonald counties in southwest Missouri remains low despite the state’s efforts to boost the population, and officials aren’t sure why.

"It has been puzzling," said Jeff Beringer, a resource scientist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

In recent years, only a handful of counties in the Missouri Bootheel reported lower spring turkey-hunting totals than Newton and McDonald counties, and experts said that region does not offer good turkey habitat. Even urban counties that cover Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield report larger turkey harvests.

In the spring of 2001, while hundreds of birds were shot in each of the surrounding counties - 275 in Barry County that year, and 318 in Jasper County - only 45 were killed in McDonald County and 14 in Newton County.

To boost the turkey populations, state conservation officials undertook one of the most intensive stockings in Missouri history. In early 2002, 360 birds were released, and 100 of them were given radio collars so that the state could track survival and fertility rates.

Still, this spring only 42 birds were taken in McDonald County and 68 in Newton County. In 2006, 67 turkeys were taken in each county.

All other counties in southwest Missouri reported turkey harvests in the triple digits, with some seeing as many as 500 and 600 wild turkeys killed each spring.

"The history is that wherever they stock turkeys in Missouri, they usually flourish," said Dan Fuller, who serves on the board of directors of the Missouri chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Mark Hutchings, a conservation department biologist who is now a private lands specialist, said radio tracking didn’t turn up anything unusual.

John Burk, regional biologist for the turkey federation, said the use of fescue for grazing cattle might be the problem, because it’s not good habitat for ground-nesting birds.

But Beringer noted that turkeys are generalists, meaning they can do well in diverse habitats.

Chuck Forest of Joplin, who is president of the Turkey Creek Gobblers, said some hunters wonder about chemicals and litter application on land in Newton and McDonald counties because of the large domestic poultry population.

But Tim Russell, regional wildlife supervisor for the conservation department, said it might just be that more time is needed before the restocking efforts have an effect.