Pennsylvania Game News - November 2021 - 14

100,000 people a year pursue turkeys
in Pennsylvania in fall.
In light of that, the Game Commission
is taking a more conservative
approach to seasons this year.
For 2021, fall turkey season is one
week, from Oct. 30 to Nov. 6, in Wildlife
Management Units 1A, 1B, 4A, 4B,
TURKEY RESEARCH
Pennsylvania's wild turkey population will
undergo new scrutiny starting this winter.
Game Commission turkey biologist Mary
Jo Casalena said a four-year study is set to
begin. It will involve capturing wild turkeys,
putting radio transmitters on their backs, then
following them to get information on habitat
use, response to weather, movement patterns,
nest success, spring and fall harvest, predation,
disease and more.
" We're going to look at all aspects of the current
status of the turkey population, " she said.
The study could, among other things, reveal
just how many turkeys Pennsylvania could or
should have.
Here as in other states, turkey populations
really took off a few decades ago when wild
birds were trapped from areas where they were
abundant and moved to places they weren't.
That creates artificial highs, though. Declines
in turkey numbers from those unsustainable
peaks are inevitable and have occurred everywhere
trap-and-transfer efforts were carried
out, Casalena said.
But what " normal " should be remains a
question.
" A problem is that we don't know what
the current carrying capacity is for our turkey
population. That's one thing we want to find
out, " Casalena said.
The research will look at turkeys in four yetto-be-determined
Wildlife Management Units
with " vastly different " turkey population densities,
from very high to very low and in between.
Those units also will feature a variety of
habitat types, from big woods to mixed landscapes
to intensive agriculture.
Updates on this research will be provided in
Game News as they become available.
- BOB FRYE
14
4D and 4E. It's two weeks, from Oct.
30 to Nov. 13, in WMUs 2A, 2F, 2G,
2H, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D and 4C.
In WMUs 2C, 2D and 2E, the season
is from Oct. 30 to Nov. 13 and Nov. 24
to 26, while in WMU 2B, it will run
from Oct. 30 to Nov. 19 and Nov. 24
to 26. In WMU 5B, the season will be
from Nov. 2 to 4.
There will be no fall turkey hunting
in WMU 5A - its previous three-day
season was eliminated - or in WMUs
5C and 5D, which long have been
closed to fall turkey hunting.
REMOVING RIFLES
Prohibiting rifles, meanwhile, isn't
meant to decrease turkey hunting participation,
but rather decrease some of
the incidental take of birds by hunters
pursuing other species.
Rifles were never the dominant firearm
for fall turkey hunters. Casalena
said roughly seven out of 10 fall turkey
hunters statewide use shotguns.
But many hunters in years past went
afield with either .22 long rifles or
rifle/shotgun combinations. And when
a 2012 regulation change permitted
the use of rifles statewide, except for
in WMU 2B, which surrounds Pittsburgh,
fall turkey harvest by rifle-users
increased. The minority carrying rifles
became effective out of proportion to
their numbers.
" Fourteen percent of hunters use
rifles, but 33 percent of the harvest is
taken with rifles, " Casalena said.
Rifle hunters account for an even
larger percentage of the fall turkey
harvest in some WMUs. On average,
between 2018 and 2020, rifles took 43
percent of the fall turkeys reported in
WMUs 2G and 5A, 47 percent in 2H
and 50 percent in 3A.
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2021

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