WFF Asks Public for Assistance with Wild Turkey Brood Survey

Also important to the survey is the county and location to understand regional and geographical trends. In the app, a drop-down menu will allow participants to select their county and location type.

"Another thing is we will have real-time data coming in, and we will see if there are areas we need to put more emphasis on or if there are holes missing in the data," Blake said. "That is another benefit of using the app. In the past, we wouldn't get that data until after the survey.

"The sole reason for sharing the location is to analyze productivity by ecoregions. We provide a map of the ecoregions in the paper form, so participants can record the exact ecoregion of the observation. On the app, if you share the location of the observation, the ecoregion is automatically populated into the field."

Turkey hunters, as a group, are hesitant to share too much information about their turkey world, but Blake said not to worry.

"We do not share any locations of observations with the public other than at a regional scale," he said. "We give the final numbers by regions but not by specific locations."

Blake said estimating populations is very difficult for Eastern wild turkeys.

"Determining population size is extremely difficult to do," he said. "This brood survey, along with harvest and our Avid Turkey Hunter Survey, gives us good indices for overall population estimates and productivity."

Blake said productivity is the key to slowing or even reversing the population decline.

"This data provides us with brood productivity," he said. "We get an average ratio of poults per hen. The standard wisdom has always been that you want to keep a one hen to two poults ratio. That ratio is more indicative of a stable population. We've been seeing a slow downward trend in poults per hen below that one to two ratio, which is also why we wanted to expand our reach in our geographical range and coverage so we get more reliable data.

"That productivity index gives us a good idea of future hunting opportunities and helps to drive future seasons and bag limits. With that productivity index, we can kind of predict what the harvest might look like."

For example, two years ago the Southeast enjoyed a decent hatch of poults with good survival rates. That turned into a very good hunting season.

"I think that is what we saw this year," Blake said. "We saw record harvests across the Southeast region. Two years ago across the region, there was a pretty decent hatch and brood success. That means that two years down the road, you can expect to see more 2-year-old adult males on the landscape. It gives us a picture of what future harvest may look like."

Blake said it's too soon to evaluate the long-term outcomes of the increased harvest, but it does help wildlife managers evaluate the overall population.

"Talking to other states, some think it's related to greater compliance with their game check system," he said. "I just think there were more 2-year-old gobblers on the landscape being harvested. That data is very valuable to us, which is why we require people to Game Check their birds.

"And it may be there are more hunters on the landscape. Turkey hunting is much more popular. That has led to higher harvest, which is why it's very important to have good reliable data to analyze."

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