Native Mountain Turkey’s

[Buckman18]

I was reading an old thread and hunting story from Herb McClure, and ensuing debate about native mountain turkey characteristics, their differences from turkeys from other parts, or whether they existed at all. Just for fun, I’m posting a couple of pics of fans. One I killed in the mountains on Chattahoochee WMA and the other I killed on a deer lease in Mcduffie County. Can you guess which bird came from where? Can you see a difference between the two?

Pic 1:


Pic 2:

 

[sman]

Stupid question. What happen to the Native birds? Weren’t they over harvested?

 

[blood on the ground]

Top fan is the native mountain bird...

 

[blood on the ground]

Stupid question. What happen to the Native birds? Weren’t they over harvested?

I'm only guessing here... I think timber harvest had something to do with it but I'm not 100% on that... Over harvesting the timber!

 

[trad bow]

I see the difference but are both birds mature toms?
I feel that there are several places in Ga that are and were remote enough to harbor a small remnant population of turkeys that all breeding came from a few birds. The mature gobblers in The Ocmulgee river swamp I hunt are a good ten pound smaller than the birds relocated in the piedmont.

 

[Thunder Head]

At this point I doubt you could separate the two. Sure there are probably areas were the old characteristic's show up or are more prevalent.

As far as weight is concerned. Could it be pure habitat? I'm sure you could take poults from the mountains and put them in a big agricultural area. When full grown the Ag turkeys will weigh more.

 

[Buckman18]

I see the difference but are both birds mature toms?
I feel that there are several places in Ga that are and were remote enough to harbor a small remnant population of turkeys that all breeding came from a few birds. The mature gobblers in The Ocmulgee river swamp I hunt are a good ten pound smaller than the birds relocated in the piedmont.

Yes, both very mature Toms with ~1.25" spurs.

Stupid question. What happen to the Native birds? Weren’t they over harvested?

There have always been turkeys in the mountains. They were never extirpated entirely.

 

[blood on the ground]

A wild turkey is a beautiful bird.. If a hunter has never seen a old Tom gobble from the roost as the early morning light highlights the copper colors in the turkeys feathers... They are missing out!
Watching a turkey pitch down off the roost and begin to feed in my direction is one of my favorite things on this planet!

 

[six]

If I had to guess I'd guess the bottom picture is from the mountains bird simply because of the color.

 

[DRBugman85]

#2 is the Mountain Gobbler..

 

[trad bow]

I’m going with top bird from the mountains.

 

[Buckman18]

Drum Roll......

Top bird is from Mcduffie, bottom bird from the mountains.

Turkey season is getting closer, let the good times begin!

 

[Timber1]

Cohutta bird, John's Mountain Bird. Cohutta gobbler is bottom photo.

 

[blong]

So here is my problem with the native mountain turkeys. If restocking with domestic birds was a total failure, where did the existing birds come from? If from captured wild turkeys, they are still wild turkeys.

 

[lampern]

I read somewhere some ranger protected the last wild turkeys on a place called Blue Ridge WMA