The Latest Turkey Research
Texas Turkeys, and Turkeys and Grape Vines
 Editor’s
Note: What have scientists learned about turkeys and
turkey habitat that can help us understand turkeys better,
learn how to provide better  habitat
for them and find out why and when they gobble? State
conservation agencies across the United States currently
have conducted research projects in these areas with
the help of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF),
the federal government and other conservation organizations.
To learn the latest information, we’ve talked
with Tom Hughes, senior wildlife biologist for the NWTF
(www.nwtf.org).
Texas Turkeys Need More Cottonwoods:
In recent years, the NWTF has become concerned because
wild-turkey populations in some portions of northern
Texas have declined. Through a research program funded
by the NWTF, Hughes reports that, “We’ve
learned just how important groves of cottonwood trees
are to wild turkeys for their roost sites. Apparently,
the bigger the area that cottonwood trees cover, the
better and the safer the roost sites in those cottonwood
trees are for the turkeys. We’ve also discovered
that in regions that don’t have as many cottonwood
trees, perhaps only a few acres, the turkey population
has declined. As the he ns
and the poults begin to disperse and move to regions
with even-smaller roost areas, eventually that population
of turkeys will vanish.” To solve this problem,
the state has made landowners more conscious of protecting
and maintaining stream-site zones and replanting cottonwood
trees to improve turkey habitat.
Turkeys Aren’t Eating Your Grapes:
Vineyard owners in the East and the West have voiced
their concerns that turkeys have eaten their wine grapes
and damaged their vines. “To investigate, we set
out 50-motion-sensor cameras in random patterns within
some vineyards,” Hughes explains. “The results
have proved that yes, wild turkeys have been very-frequent
visitors to those vineyards but actually have eaten
few of the grapes. However, we’ve learned from
this research that when the sun sets, the raccoons and
the deer come into the vineyards, eat most of the grapes
and destroy the vines.”
Tomorrow: Gobbler Kidnappers
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