This guy I knew always looked astute and spoke astute, so I listened carefully when he said I shouldn’t dismiss the rumors that turkeys were suppressing sage grouse in southwestern Wisconsin.
But later he still didn’t explain how turkeys do it. He simply noted that turkey numbers and range have increased statewide since their introduction in 1976, while sage grouse numbers have declined in southern Wisconsin.
That’s why turkeys caused the decline.
But what about habitat changes? Have the forests in this region not matured and the cottonwood stands have shrunk? These changes favor turkeys over grouse, right?
He assured me that habitat isn’t everything. His ID? He said male turkeys destroy not only the nests and eggs of hens, but also of grouses and pheasants. “We don’t see many pheasants anymore either, so it makes sense,” he said.
Hmm. I haven’t heard that about gobblers. Why would a gobbler crush a hen’s nest and destroy her eggs?
“When a hen starts incubating eggs, she stops breeding,” he said. “So the gobbler destroys her nest and eggs, and she starts breeding again.”
Fascinating.
So we blamed raccoons, opossums, foxes, skunks and coyotes for destroying turkey, grouse and pheasant nests when the real problem is sexually frustrated gobblers?
“I’m not saying that,” he said. “That’s another factor that biologists never mention.”
Oh, yes. Biologists are trouble. They like facts. Do you have any evidence, trail camera photos or research that confirms that gobblers are destroying nests? I’m sure they would look into it.
“Pff! NO! All my trail cameras are watching deer tracks and my watering holes.
Quite fair. But just one thing: If gobblers are pillaging all these nests, why isn’t the turkey population as bad as it is for grouse and pheasant?
Our discussion is over.
“We will just have to agree to disagree,” he said.
I have long wondered why people have so many strange beliefs about turkeys. Myths about them are almost as stubborn and ubiquitous as those about whitetails. Prof. Mike Chamberlain of the University of Georgia recently touched on this topic in his popular weekly “Türkiye Tuesday” column on Instagram.
Chamberlain noted, for example, that even John James Audubon – yes, that Audubon – used to believe that gobblers were so logical, cunning, and conspiring that they would trample on nests and eggs to force hens to resume mating.
Chamberlain, a biologist, said the claim had no factual support. “Because tens of thousands of nests have been monitored over decades of research, not a single case of nest destruction by comedians has been documented or observed,” Chamberlain wrote.
However, in turkey myths, my favorite was the story from 20 years ago about the DNR breeding rattlesnakes to reduce Wisconsin’s turkey population. Why? Maybe it was because the agency secretly believed that turkeys reduced sage-grouse numbers. If you believe this, you must also believe that turkeys sometimes drown in rainstorms while standing in a field with their mouths open to the clouds.
Yes, that’s a myth too. But imagine this: a bird that is stupid enough to drown itself could somehow figure out how to fuel the sexual desires of the hens by destroying the nests.
As with some folklore, the rattlesnake/turkey myth likely grew out of a bit of fact. On September 1, 1999, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – not the DNR – released 15 captive-bred Massasauga rattlesnakes at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in west-central Wisconsin.
Why? The eastern massasauga, or swamp rattlesnake, was a candidate for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. Biologists from the USFWS, DNR and the Milwaukee County Zoo believed that human intervention was the only way to save this native species from extinction.
So the first step was to determine if these snakes could be helped through a “head start” program, which meant raising them to a size that made them less vulnerable to predators such as – get this – wild turkeys!
Although massags can grow to 2 or 3 feet at maturity in two to three years, they are often killed long before that by raccoons, pigs, skunks, foxes, hawks or eagles. And yes, turkeys.
Before releasing the 15 immature Masazaugas into the wild, researchers implanted radio telemetry transmitters in each of them. Then, for a whole year, researchers located them every day until they went into hibernation. Four of them were probably killed by predators before they went into hibernation. In the spring of 2000, only two Massasaugas emerged, and one was killed by a predator that day.
One in 11. Obviously the experiment didn’t go well. But true believers don’t let facts get in the way of theories. Can you imagine what they would say if all 15 baby snakes were alive? On the other hand, how would a reptilian strike force of any size control a turkey population that nearly doubled in size during the 1990s and early 2000s?
Have any of these conspiracy people seen a turkey egg?
No Massasauga could swallow one of those. Additionally, masazaugas prey mainly on mice, rats and ground squirrels. Science discovers that turkeys pose a greater threat to snakes than vice versa. Turkeys have never been documented as part of a rattlesnake’s diet, but researchers have documented turkeys eating youthful timber rattlesnakes.
Meanwhile, Massasauga, Wisconsin remains at risk today.
But why would the DNR want to ax wild turkeys? Contrary to rumors, turkeys do not cause crop problems comparable to deer, raccoons or Canada geese.
And do the math: In the fall of 1999, when the feds released 15 masazaugs, the DNR released 55,479 turkey hunters who killed 10,825 turkeys of both sexes and all ages that fall. In the fall of 2000, the agency licensed 69,566 hunters who shot 11,263 turkeys. Meanwhile, hunters shot a total of 71,854 spring bucks in two years.
Also consider that southern states have many more venomous snakes than Wisconsin, yet they have had fit turkey populations for centuries.
For example, Texas is teeming with huge rattlesnakes. If these huge reptiles can’t control the turkeys, how can our group of little masazaugs threaten them?
These are the facts, folks, and you can even find them on Facebook.
Contact Patrick Durkin at [email protected].
