Are wild turkeys in the Eastern United States on the decline?

Are wild turkeys
in the Eastern United States 
on the decline?

In the beginning of December 2020, I got a request from the Department of Environmental Conservation to participate in the annual Summer Wild Turkey Sighting Survey. They are conducted during August to estimate the average number of wild turkey poults (the young ones) per hen statewide. The survey will indicate the geographic regions and predict the reproductive success in a given year and monitor this popular game bird.

I had never received such a request and thought that I would participate. After a while I had to admit that I had not seen wild turkeys in a year or two …. I have plenty of pictures of turkeys under our bird feeders or taking dust baths on our front lawn.

In late summer you see the turkey family parading their young ones in a long line with the male in front and the female in the back; and nobody dares to leave the line. 

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Here is some turkey history. In the late 1990 and early 2000s, turkey populations hit an estimated 7 million birds in NYS, but since then there has been a slow decline. In the beginning, scientists speculated that the turkey population had stabilized and the capacity of the habitat was met. In the Eastern United States however, the population has dropped 40 % since 2010, and that is alarming. But other states also report declining numbers; Tennessee is down 50 % and Arkansas even 65 %.

Scientists have noticed that hens with poults were down 43 % from the year before and on a five year average of 34 %. The Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources stated that with a poult-per-hen count of only 1.9, the wild turkey population would neither grow nor decline.

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So what is happening? One reason could be that the nesting habitat has changed. Turkeys prefer older mixed forests. Hens need brushy, young growth for nesting. Unfortunately, our timber management in this region is not providing this habitat. Then you have more and more fences around crop fields and increased use of pesticides. This results in less insects for the hens and the poults. Less nesting habitat leads to increased attacks of raccoons and other predators.


Survival of the poults is difficult to observe. Scientists assume that only 50 % of the young tiny poults will make it, due to predators or even the weather conditions.

Turkey hunters like to blame the decline of wild turkeys on chicken manure from poultry operations. It is used as fertilizer and some people think the chicken manure might spread a disease. This was tested but the results were inconclusive. Personally, we doubt this is one of the causes based on personal experiences. We’ve been observing wild turkeys in our area since the 1970’s. Chicken farming for eggs and meat was always a major industry in this area. In fact, our property was a former mom and pop chicken operation with as many as 14,000 free range chickens on any given year. 

The local farmers have been using chicken manure for generations to fertilize their fields. When they spread it in the winter and early spring, all the local turkeys follow the spreaders and dine on insects and uneaten chicken fodder found in the waste. If the practice was a vector for harmful diseases, the local populations probably never would have peaked in the early 2000’s. It may be that the unpleasant, exceptionally strong odor that it emanates- you do not want to get anywhere near a freshly spread field for at least several days, is the reason that it is being blamed, but if you spot a freshly spread field, you will probably see the turkeys in train behind the spreader tracks.

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It is assumed that a moderate harvest of turkeys in the spring has no effect on the population. Nevertheless scientists are taking another look. Each state could change hunting rules to take the pressure off the turkeys. Every state’s hunting seasons and rules are different, so modifying them to adjust to local population declines, is a long held tool of biologists to regulate wildlife levels. Although hunting has become somewhat politically incorrect to newer generations, it is a vital instrument in maintaining our natural habitats and wildlife. Hunting fees, permits and related taxes are a major source of revenue for states to use to maintain and restore habitats and fund research programs. Although the general public are slow to agree to new taxes for conservation initiatives, hunters gladly fund these efforts as they want to preserve their sport in sustainable ways.

The weather is of course also playing a role. If the spring arrives late and is cold and wet on top of it, it is not weather that turkeys want to reproduce. Everything must be right.

There is one interesting fact: turkeys can fly despite popular perception, but it looks rather awkward! If pursued by a predator, they will tend to run and launch themselves into a long glide when possible, to evade danger. In fact they do roost in trees at night to sleep. I remember being startled one morning shortly after dawn while I was hiding in my game blind in a stand of trees. Suddenly, I was surprised by a series of slapping noises behind and above my head and a group of large dark shapes swept silently over me from behind. It was quite unexpected and startling in the quiet early dawn. I had in fact entered the stand in the dark and was unaware of about a dozen turkeys sleeping right above me in the gloom. When they all launched themselves together into the field I was watching, it took my breath away.

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I hope they will not disappear like the bats did due to disease. Wild Turkeys are such a unique part of the United States. In fact, the American polymath and founding father, Benjamin Franklin- always a scientist at heart, wanted it to be the National Bird! Perhaps unfortunately, he lost out to the bald eagle lobby.

By endangerednj.blogspot.com