What's happening to Oklahoma wild turkeys? Sharp decline in population concerns biologists

Are turkeys heading down the same trail as quail?

There are drastically fewer wild turkeys in western Oklahoma, the stronghold of the state's turkey hunting, and state wildlife officials are considering regulation changes and embarking on a research study to learn why.

Hundreds of out-of-state turkey hunters visit Oklahoma each spring to pursue the Rio Grande subspecies of wild turkeys, which are distinguished from the other wild turkey species by the tan-colored tips of their tail feathers.

Heading into next month's spring turkey season, the population has dropped significantly in western Oklahoma over the last two years. It's down 50 percent from 2019 in southwest Oklahoma and 40 percent in northwest Oklahoma.

In the rest of the state, the population decline of Rios is less dramatic and hunters probably will not notice a difference, said Rod Smith, southwest region supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

But in western Oklahoma, it will be noticeable, Smith said.

"I think, generally, people are going to see fewer birds," he said.

State wildlife officials are concerned enough by the decline that they are pondering hunting regulation changes in the future such as smaller bag limits and a shorter season.

They are also in the process of hiring a university-led research team to study the wild turkey population to try and learn what is causing the plunge.

"The same thing is going on in Texas and Kansas… which makes you think it is weather patterns," Smith said. "It is a big puzzle and we know several of the pieces, but I think there are also other pieces to that puzzle besides weather."

T.J. Goodpasture of Enid, mid-south director of development for the National Wild Turkey Federation, said it is not just the Midwest, but the population of the Eastern subspecies of wild turkeys continues to decline in the southeastern United States.

 "As an organization, we are really ramping up research support to help figure out what's going on," he said.  

The wooded areas of southeast Oklahoma are home to Eastern turkeys, and since 2012 the turkey hunting season there has been shorter than the rest of the state because of the decreasing population.

As far as the recent drop in Rio Grandes across the rest of the state, disease and predators are among the theories for the decline. But Goodpasture said wild turkeys as a whole are finding fewer places where they can live.

"Across the country we are losing 6,000 acres of habitat a day due to urbanization, farming practices, wildfires in the west, all that kind of stuff," he said. "It's kind of become a culture of not managing land.

"When you are looking at places like Oklahoma, Texas that are 95 to 97 percent privately owned, it becomes much more difficult to have a large-scale reach on important habitat areas." 

At its peak in 2006, the population estimate of Rio Grande turkeys statewide was 119,000. Last year, that estimate had dipped to 88,000 and it's still going south. 

"They haven't reproduced well in about three years and those birds live long enough that one year just doesn't jump out at you," Smith said. "You don't have reproduction for a year, it isn't real stark.

"But as those turkeys age and then are gone from the population, and you don't have other turkeys replacing them, then all of a sudden in a couple of years you go, 'Whoa, we are way down.' That's where we are in the western counties."

Smith doubts the state will ever see the turkey population reach the high it did more than a decade ago.

"After the drought years of 2011 and '12 we took a pretty good hit," Smith said. "We had recovered somewhat from that but never back to historic high numbers, and we probably never will.

"It was an unusual set of circumstances (in the early to mid-2000s). We just had successive years where everything was ideal for reproduction, so we had real high numbers, but I knew at the time it wasn't sustainable.

"It happened seven consecutive years. The chances of that happening again are pretty slim."

Asked if wild turkeys are in as bad of shape as bobwhite quail, another western Oklahoma bird whose numbers have dwindled to the point where many people have quit hunting them, Smith said, "Not yet, because it is so short-term. A couple of years of good poult production and we would be feeling pretty comfortable again."

Smith said the February freeze and snowstorm in the state shouldn't have killed turkeys as it did many other birds. 

"Turkeys being long-legged and scratching well should have been able to get down into that fluffy snow down to food," he said. "Temperature-wise, research has shown when it gets really cold they just kind of stay in the roost and fluff up. There are a lot of turkeys in Minnesota and Wisconsin and places like that. It was really cold for us but not so bad for a turkey." 

Goodpasture said the sky is not falling on turkeys just yet. Turkeys lay eggs mainly in March and April with peak hatching occurring in early May.

"Fingers crossed, we should see a good recruitment class of jakes (young males) this year," he said. "We should get another good hatch this year and that should get the birds coming back. Rios are pretty adaptable and pretty resilient.

"But who is to say what the weather is going to do in the next three months."

Reporter Ed Godfrey looks for stories that impact your life. Be it news, outdoors, sports — you name it, he wants to report it. Have a story idea? Contact him at egodfrey@oklahoman.com or on Twitter @EdGodfrey. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

Spring Turkey Season

Youth season: April 3-4

Regular season: April 6 through May 6

Youth season (southeast zone): April 17-18

Regular season (southeast zone): April 19-May 6.

Zoom meeting about turkeys

Landowners are invited to participate in a Zoom meeting on Tuesday to learn how to improve wild turkey populations.

The meeting will be a question and answer session with experts from Oklahoma State University, U.S. Forest Service and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Topics of discussion will cover prescribed fire, forest thinning, food plots, and other habitat management relative to wild turkey. The Zoom meeting is at 7 p.m. and pre-registration is required. Participation is limited to 300 people.

For more information, contact Kelly Adams of the Wildlife Department at Kelly.Adams@odwc.ok.gov.

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