Mast and roost trees are generally not as lacking as they are in the west, but in some areas planting these trees is still a part of management plans.įor additional information on Oklahoma Turkey Sub-Species go here. Green winter food plots and renewal of plant succession through prescribed burning or disking are also good management technique in eastern range. Managers have begun opening such plots amid previously undisturbed forest. Dense underbrush in these openings provides nesting sites while open ground makes good “bugging” areas for turkeys, especially poults. Openings in the forest canopy are now seen as critically important for poult production and brooding areas. Once it was thought that the Eastern subspecies had evolved to become a creature of undisturbed forest – a theory which has been disproved. On wildlife management areas, biologists are using new knowledge and understanding of the Eastern turkey to enhance habitat. Better weather for successful nesting and poult production has recently led to dramatic increases in Eastern turkey flocks. Generally confined to the rugged mountains of southeast and far eastern Oklahoma, the population status of this subspecies is considered less stable than its western Oklahoma cousin.Įastern turkey populations spiked in the 1980s, but the weather for reproduction and poult survival led to depressed populations by the early 1990s. Oklahoma’s current population of Eastern wild turkeys is within a range much smaller than it was originally. Moderate grazing, like that observed on some wildlife management areas, can help enhance poult rearing and feeding areas. On wildlife management areas, biologists enhance turkey habitat by planting winter food plants such as wheat, rye grass, or alfalfa, renewing plant succession by burning or disking, planting mast trees such as oaks and pecans, and planting roost trees (mostly cottonwoods) in areas that are otherwise suitable for supporting populations. Turkey hunters have a legitimate chance to bag a spring tom on many of the Department’s lands open to public hunting. This has dispersed populations of birds across the western three-fourths of the state, and made them more accessible to sportsmen. These turkeys are no longer confined to river systems since roost sites are now available in tree rows, shelterbelts, and upland timber, which was not available before man settled the Oklahoma prairie. Today, populations are stable, and trap and transplant operations are seldom used. Natural Resources Wild Turkey Stamp program and the U.S. They were able to adapt easily, reproduce successfully and expand quickly all through the west, cross timbers areas, and finally into the hill country of mid-eastern Oklahoma. the states wild turkey population, methods for collecting robust wild turkey demographic data. This subspecies inhabits a much wider range than it did originally, partly because these birds were more available than Eastern turkeys during the era of restorations.
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