State turkey habitat is still on decline
By Joe Mosby / Correspondent / jhmosby@acyberback.com
Thursday, February 4, 2010 12:13 PM CST
Dr. James Earl Kennamer came to Arkansas a few days ago to talk turkey. When Kennamer talks turkey, you sit up, pay attention and listen.
Kennamer is the longtime officer and leader with the National Wild Turkey Federation, based in Edgefield, S.C., and active across the nation. A wildlife biologist, Kennamer has worked with and studied wild turkeys for decades now.
There was a reason for his being in Arkansas, and that was as a consultant, a resource in the issue of declining turkeys and unhappy turkey hunters in this state. No, Kennamer didn’t bring a magic pill to solve the problem and turn around turkey populations in Arkansas. He brought a message centered on one word — habitat.
He also brought word that Arkansas is not alone in the problem of declining turkey numbers. “It’s all through the Southeast,” he said.
When the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission canceled the fall turkey hunting season last September, seven days before it was to begin, complaints were loud and frequent. Many of the objections were to the late action in closing the hunt. Some other hunters denied that turkey numbers have declined. And some hunters simply demanded to be allowed to hunt turkeys no matter what.
Turkey hunting in Arkansas has been trimmed for several years now. The peak in terms of numbers of turkeys checked by hunters came in 2003. But that year was followed by several springs with poor hatches of young turkeys. Weather played a role here. Spring turkey season shrank from 35 days to 21 days in the better areas of the state and less than that in turkey-short locales.
Kennamer said turkey habitat has declined in part because of growth. The openings and edges and fields where turkeys thrived in the past have grown up in timber. Construction and development have taken away turkey habitat also.
There are some similarities with the decline of turkeys and the decline of quail, he said. Quail, once the No. 1 type of hunting in Arkansas and most other southern states, are now virtually a memory of the past. Loss of habitat is usually blamed, and this is interpreted to include changes in farming practices. Field edges and fence rows, quail territory, have vanished.
Turkeys came into prominence later than quail. Excluding the era of subsistence hunting by early settlers, quail hunting was at a peak in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Turkeys, like deer, had declined early in the 20th century, and turkey restoration in Arkansas started after deer restoration.
Both deer and turkey restorations succeeded. By the late 1960s, turkey hunting was increasing although some Arkansas counties were closed. Trapping and relocation of turkeys continued in the 1970s and 1980s, and the number of turkeys taken by hunters climbed from the hundreds to the thousands, with 2003 the high with over 19,000 turkeys checked by hunters.
Kennamer said predators are a factor but a limited one in turkey reproduction.
“People want to blame coyotes for poor turkey reproduction, and yes, there is some predation by coyotes. But we can look at Texas where turkeys are thriving, and they have huge numbers of coyotes.”
Skunks, raccoons and other predators bother nesting turkeys, he said, but not to a great extent. Feral hogs? Yes, occasionally they will destroy a turkey nest, but hogs are more a habitat destructive factor, Kennamer said.
“Chufa is one of the best turkey foods we have, and hogs like them so much that some people call them hog peanuts.”
Chufa is a bunch grass that produces an underground nut similar to a peanut. Turkeys love the nuts and scratch them up readily. But so do hogs and other wildlife. Chufa is commonly used in food plots in Arkansas and in many other states.
Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau.
