ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Department of Conservation wants your help as agents monitor the state’s wild turkey population.
If you happen to see a wild turkey this summer, MDC wants to know about it. The agency will soon launch its Wild Turkey Brood Survey to collect information on wild turkey sightings from June to August.
MDC has conducted its Wild Turkey Brood Survey annually every year since 1959 to determine the success of the hatch. MDC staff and volunteers are working to observe turkeys throughout the summer months, record information at the county level and summarize information by each of Missouri’s region.
MDC has developed an electronic version of the survey to make it more accessible an improve how quickly results are summarized.
“We calculate the poult-to-hen ratio – the average number of poults observed per hen observed – from the turkey sightings submitted during the Wild Turkey Brood Survey,” said MDC Turkey Biologist Reina Tyl. “This poult-to-hen ratio can provide insight into the quality of the hatch that year, and we can look at trends in turkey production to predict how turkey abundance might change in the near future.”
To learn more and to sign up to report wild turkey sightings, click here.