HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Game Commission Turkey Biologist Mary Jo Casalena said that the spring gobbler season in Turkey Management Area (TMA) 7B study area ended on a good note. The study area is primarily comprised of portions of the Michaux State Forest in Adams, Franklin and Cumberland counties, and is looking into the reasons behind the suppressed wild turkey population in this area.

"We found that no radio-marked hens were illegally harvested," Casalena said. "A hunter was successful in legally harvesting one hen with a 7.5 inch beard mid-way through the season. A second bearded hen, with a 6 inch beard was killed by a predator just prior to the season."

Casalena said that of the 50 radio-marked hens that were alive one week before the hunting season, 3 adult hens displayed beards.

"This is not so uncommon because other studies have shown that up to one-third of a hen population can possess small or pencil-thin beards," Casalena said. "The third bearded hen eluded hunters even though she still is not incubating a clutch of eggs yet."

Of the 22 marked males that may have been alive before the hunting season, two had radio transmitters (one adult gobbler, or tom; and one young gobbler, or jake). The remainder were only legbanded.

"The tom wearing a radio-transmitter was taken by a local hunter on the second Saturday of the season, but the jake with a radio-transmitter was never harvested. Only one of the legbanded jakes was harvested by a hunter on opening day," Casalena said.

Currently, 43 radio-marked hens are alive. During the last month, 7 hens have died. Five hens have been killed by predators, one was killed by unknown causes (only the transmitter remained), and the one bearded hen was harvested legally. Mortality during the spring is not unusual since turkeys are a prey species, and nesting hens are very vulnerable to predation.

Of the 43 hens currently alive, 30 have begun to incubate nests. Three of those hens have successfully hatched a nest, and several others nests are due to hatch soon. To date, 23 of 30 adult hens and 7 of 13 one-year old hens that have been fitted with transmitters have attempted to nest. Typically one-year old hens have a lower nesting rate than adult hens. Thus far, 3 nests have hatched, 3 hens have abandoned their nests and 2 nests have been destroyed by predators. The 2 hens incubating the destroyed nests were not killed and are currently alive. Other studies have shown hens that are unsuccessful in hatching their first nest of the season, may attempt to lay a second nest in hopes of raising poults.

According to previous years’ sightings by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry personnel, the first turkey poults usually are sighted toward the end of May. Casalena said that this year was no different.

"Our first two nests hatched on May 25 and 26, and the third hatched on May 30," Casalena said. "Clutch sizes of these three nests were 13, 14, and 15 eggs each. All the eggs hatched from the two larger nests and 12 of 13 hatched from the smaller nest. As is typical with turkeys, the first nests to hatch were those of adult hens.

"We will continue to monitor these hens throughout the nesting season. The above information is provided solely as an update to the study thus far. We are encouraged by our findings to date and look forward to continuing these updates as the breeding season, and study, continue."

This 2.5 year study to determine why wild turkey populations are suppressed in TMA 7B began August 1999 and will continue through December 2003. The Game Commission and sportsmen’s groups have been concerned about the apparent suppression of wild turkeys in the South Mountain region for several years, and was the very reason that TMA 7B was split out of TMA 7.

"We appreciate all the cooperation by hunters reporting their harvest information to help the success of our research study, which is being funded jointly by the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Game Commission and Penn State University," Casalena said. "Additionally, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry is cooperating with our efforts."

Casalena is being assisted in the study by a field crew of biological aides, including: Doug Little, Mike Niebauer, Lee Humberg, and Craig Swope; and Mark Lowles, a Penn State graduate student.

Following is a summary of Casalena’s report.

Spring Turkey Harvest of Marked Turkeys

1. Adult hen with 6 inch beard and radio-transmitter. Killed by a predator before the season. Leg with leg-band was found on April 25, while a turkey hunter was preseason scouting on private property in Cumberland County. He was scouting before sunrise, standing against a tree and saw a red fox walking toward him with a whole turkey leg in its mouth. When the fox was approximately 10 feet away, the fox saw him, dropped the leg and ran off. The hunter knew it was a hen turkey (or a small jake) because the leg had no spurs. The leg was still warm and pliable, very recently killed. He assumed the fox killed the hen while she was incubating her clutch of eggs on the ground because it was still somewhat dark in the woods and he figured non-nesting turkeys were still roosted in the trees. Or perhaps an owl killed her from the roost and the fox almost immediately scavenged the leg. Note, because turkeys are prey species most of their mortality is naturally due to predation of one form or another.
2. Jake with 2.75 inch beard and leg-band. Harvested opening day of turkey season in Cumberland County on the Michaux State Forest. This turkey was with another jake. Both came running in to the hunter, hunter shot it at 20 yards. Reported by DWCO John Lynch.
3. Adult gobbler with 9 inch beard and radio-transmitter - our only adult gobbler with a transmitter. Harvested the second Saturday of the season, May 6, in Adams County. Reported by the hunter and transmitter retrieved.
4. Adult hen with 7.5 inch beard and radio-transmitter. Harvested on May 11, 9 a.m. in South Hampton Township, Cumberland County. Reported by the hunter and transmitter retrieved. Hen came in to the hunter’s decoy. Hunter contemplated for about 10 minutes before pulling the trigger. He decided to harvest this unusual hen with a 7.5 inch beard and have her mounted for all to see.

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