Pennsylvania Game News - May 2012 - 22

ONLY ONE in every 1000 or so gobblers develop multiple spurs. This rare occurrence appears in less than 1/10 of 1 percent of gobblers.

the winter and may have grown some by the spring gobbler season. Gobblers were not weighed as part of the study, but a good number of the older toms were estimated to be in the 20-pound range. Among the largest gobblers caught by trapping teams was an adult livetrapped in New York with 13/8-inch spurs and a 10-inch beard. That bird was outdone by one caught in Ohio with 1½-inch spurs and a 10-inch beard. Pennsylvania refused to be topped by the other states. Three gobblers caught here had bragging-rights spurs measuring 1½ inches, and one of those birds had a 14-inch beard! So what other wild turkey trivia was discovered in the study? It seems that some gobblers are not careful about crossing highways. Twenty-four banded gobblers were struck and killed by motor vehicles during the study (13 in New York, 2 in Ohio and 9 in Pennsylvania). Some gobblers are wanderers and others must have liked it right where they were first captured. The average distance gobblers moved during the study was about eight miles. However, some gobblers, particularly jakes, traveled farther. Twelve banded gobblers crossed state lines and were taken by hunters in adjacent states. In 2006 one gobbler from Pennsylvania headed north into New York. Two gobblers captured in New York turned up in Pennsylvania the same year. In 2008 three gobblers from New York and one from Ohio made it to Pennsylvania in time for our spring season. Also in that year two Pennsylvania gobblers were harvested
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in West Virginia. Two wandering gobblers from Pennsylvania were taken by hunters in New Jersey in 2010 and one Ohio gobbler was killed in Pennsylvania. Some hunters proved to be extremely lucky in the course of the five springs in the study. There were 1,677 reports of banded gobblers recovered either by being harvested in the hunting season or being found by hunters. Sixty-nine people reported harvesting more than one banded gobbler or harvesting one and finding another that had died of some other cause. Seven individual hunters killed a banded gobbler in the spring and another banded gobbler in the fall. Another seven lucky hunters took an amazing three banded gobblers while the study was in progress. When it came to relatives harvesting banded gobblers, father-and-son combinations led the pack. Twelve father and son hunters each took a banded gobbler. Two grandfathers and grandsons killed banded gobblers, and three married couples killed banded gobblers. One pair of brothers each took a banded gobbler. In other words, 36 banded gobblers were taken by people who were related. It is likely these folks lived or hunted near one of the many trap sites used by trapping teams, but with the distances traveled by gobblers, you never know. One landowner allowed a trapping team to capture gobblers on his farm all four years. Yet, until the final year of the study, no banded gobbler was harvested on his land. Then, during the fifth spring, the landowner harvested a very nice banded gobbler—a bird that had been banded eight miles away from his farm. One New York hunter took a nice gobbler on May 1, 2008, the opening day of the spring season, near the town of Prattsburgh. The gobbler was with two other longbeards. When he reported the harvest
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Pennsylvania Game News - May 2012

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