Wild turkeys can be unruly neighbors. They poop all over the place, damage trees with their sharp claws, hold up traffic and are known to bully dogs, children and the occasional mail carrier.
That was part of the motivation behind a recent Wyoming Game and Fish Department project that trapped 137 birds around Casper this winter and relocated them to rural sites in Natrona and Converse counties, where habitat is recovering from drought and severe winter weather.
“Now that the habitat is coming back, these relocated birds will have a chance to re-establish and expand their population,” Joan Eisemann, National Wild Turkey Federation’s Wyoming State Chapter president, said in a press release. The federation aided the project by purchasing small specialized box traps used to capture the birds.
Federation volunteers also helped with capture, transport and release. Wildlife management students from Casper College joined to get a hands-on learning experience, and a kindergarten class from a rural community also helped release the birds.
According to Wyoming Game and Fish Public Information Specialist Janet Milek, the project set out to trap and relocate wild turkeys in high concentrations around Casper. Relocation helps reduce conflicts with humans or pets, and bolsters rural wild turkey populations, she said.
The work entailed setting up box traps as well as drop nets — which were used to gather large flocks of birds on bigger properties — in areas heavily used by turkeys before transporting the birds to their new homes.
“Optimal wild turkey habitats encompass areas with suitable roost trees (e.g., cottonwood, Douglas fir, ponderosa pine) and food sources like seeds, grains, insects, and other hard and soft mast,” Milek wrote in an email. “These needs are often met in grain fields, rangelands, and ponderosa pine galleries with diverse understories. Riparian areas also provide ideal habitat conditions. With their typically mild winters, Central and Eastern Wyoming are particularly favorable for turkey populations as harsh winters limit their survival.”
Along with ending human-wildlife conflicts, the federation said, the intent is to strengthen wild turkey populations to create new and better bird hunting opportunities.
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