Lots of Hens Don't Mean Fewer Gobblers

Turkeys are not deer. Skewed buck to doe ratios occur after many years of intensive harvest pressure aimed specifically at males. In a long-lived species, this can be problematic. Deer can live a long time and where there is little harvest of does, sex ratios can get unbalanced pretty quickly. Deer have the capacity of increase their population by 40% per year owing to productivity, survival and life expectancy.

When we discuss the skewed sex ratio in deer and its impact on breeding we are dealing with a species in which 85% of antlered males are removed each year through unrestricted harvest. Such a heavy harvest rate has never been reported for male wild turkeys, even where liberal seasons with a long-standing history occur ( Missouri , Alabama , Mississippi , South Carolina , and the list goes on. We're also dealing with mammals where a female undergoes estrus cycles. If not bred, she recycles after a period of time. Many does enter estrus simultaneously. If there are too few bucks, a number of un-bred does will pass out of estrus within a few days un-bred and another month will go by before they are fertile again.

There is no evidence to suggest this is an issue with birds. Once hens begin to ovulate, they continue to di so throughout the breeding season. If a hen is bred once, she can produce fertile eggs for a long time. In fact, hen turkeys can maintain active sperm in their oviduct for as long as 56 days after being bred. She will continue to produce fertile eggs for more than a month if she loses a nest to predation. Egg production stops while she is incubating but hens have no trouble initiating production again if a nest is lost. Deer don't have that capability.

Overharvest of adult gobblers may affect the age structure of the population for a period of time, but there is no evidence that a reduced number of adult gobblers would affect breeding. The jakes would step up the plate if not intimidated by adult males and breeding would happen anyway. So... there might be fewer adult gobblers to keep turkey hunters happy, but the population would maintain itself. By the way, harvest of adult gobblers would have to exceed 60 or 70% for that to happen. In a study area in western Kentucky sustained harvest of 62% of adult gobblers annually did not reduce the availability of adult toms in subsequent years (though long-spurred old timers were harder to come by). Kentucky has a three gobbler bag limit.

While late hatched wild turkeys might have a slight winter survival disadvantage over birds hatched earlier, much of that disadvantage is made up before winter ever sets in. Wild turkeys mature to their "normal" juvenile stature in about 16 weeks. So a turkey hatched in September (unusual but it has happened) will be "full grown" by January. Most "late" hatching is completed by early July. Extended nesting in wild turkeys is more often the result of weather conditions that influence nest losses and cause re-nesting to occur at higher than normal rates. This is not detrimental to poult survival. On the contrary, it can serve as an insurance policy to offset weather-related losses that occurred in the earlier hatch.

Turkeys mature much more quickly than deer. Even so, juvenile hens contribute less to annual recruitment than their adult counterparts. Juvenile hens tend to nest later and some fail to nest at all.

Bob Eriksen NWTF Regional Biologist