Hunters and fishermen always know better than game and fish biologists what needs to be done to keep our game and fish populations healthy.  Any time they don’t catch or kill enough, they want things changed, and they know just how to do it.

    This year the folks that earned college degrees and spend their careers working with game and fish recommended delaying the opening of turkey season for two weeks. Based on some turkey hunters complaints, you would think the world is ending. Oddly enough, many of those complaints come from the same folks whining that they aren’t seeing as many turkeys as in the past.

    Many if not all the biologists at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Game and Fish Division are hunters and fishermen themselves. They can make mistakes but they do not go out of their way to inconvenience hunters and fishermen.  That would be a self-inflicted injury.  

    Unfortunately, many of the administrators of the different Departments are politicians more than biologists and they do make political rather than scientific decisions.

    In an article in Georgia Outdoor News a professor at the University of Georgia who is also a hunter was quoted: “Agencies want to open seasons so hunters like me can go and enjoy the gobbling activity, but what that results in is birds often being harvested early in the breeding season, which researchers have known for decades may be problematic if harvest rates (percent of males harvested) are high,” said Mike Chamberlain, the Terrell Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

    In that same article this statement raises questions: “There may still be a host of other factors affecting the decline of wild turkey populations —habitat loss, fragmentation of the landscape and poor management practices are chief among them,” said Chamberlain. “But being more mindful of when the birds are breeding is one way to help the population while also securing better hunting trips in the future.”

    Some of those other factors may also include increased numbers of predators like coyotes, raccoons, hogs, possums and foxes. Not only can some of them  kill adult turkey, they easily kill poults and also eat the eggs. And even fire ants can kill young birds in the nest.

Growing up we shot every hawk we saw; it was not illegal back then and we knew they killed quail, rabbits, squirrels and doves, game we wanted to kill and eat. It was rare to see a bird of prey back then.  Now I see them pretty much every day, and they kill and eat turkey polts.

    Chris Plott is a turkey hunter and owns Plott
Hide and Fur Company here in Griffin.  He has seen the decline in numbers of turkey everywhere he hunts, from Lamar County to South Georgia to Mexico.  He is not sure why turkey populations are in decline, but he thinks numbers of predators may be a big part of it.

    “We have not bought any predator furs locally since the 1990’s Chris said.  Before then predators were trapped regularly, and their populations were kept down.  That does not happen now.

    Chris said he knows land management and the proliferation of big pine plantations has hurt. There is a reason huge forest of nothing but pine trees are called “pine barrens,” there is little for wildlife to eat in them.

    Diseases may play a part, but I found no mention of evidence of diseases found by biologists.  I know we had to guard against many kinds of fowl diseases when we had our chicken layer farm and there may be some out there that kill turkey in the wild.

Weather definitely plays a part short term.  An extremely rainy or dry spring can hurt nesting success, but that usually lasts only one or two years before having a normal year, so long term it balances out.

    I never saw coyotes or heard them “sing” when growing up in the 60s and 70s. Now I seldom go 24 hours without seeing one on my trail cameras and often hear them calling at dusk when I am camping.  No doubt they eat eggs, poults and adult turkey.

    Biologists admit they do not have all the answers. When they identify a possible cause they do what they can to adjust and stop it, things like delaying season opening.

    We need to support them in their efforts while watching to make sure those decisions are based on biology, not politics.