Conversation with DNR Turkey Project Biologist Emily Rushton

buckpasser

Senior Member
Thanks for posting. I’ve heard most all of that before. I disagree with a lot you and her said. I think habitat is a slight to moderate player (5-10%), unidentified disease is the king player (85-95%), and hunting season dates for killing Toms is still sitting right at 0.0000%.

To the ultra smart biologists: quit with the “gobbling activity” crap. News flash: they quit gobbling so much when you hunt them hard! Gobbling activity means absolutely nothing to poult recruitment even though you all need it to for your far fetched theories. I can tell you that without spending a dime. Use some common sense you buncha’ dopes!

Also, please quit with the “late burning is fine” lies. Common sense…

I wish a good biologist with a voice and mind of their own would emerge! I may start a gofundme to put someone with a brain through school to combat these dingbats.
 

C.Killmaster

Georgia Deer Biologist
Thanks for posting. I’ve heard most all of that before. I disagree with a lot you and her said. I think habitat is a slight to moderate player (5-10%), unidentified disease is the king player (85-95%), and hunting season dates for killing Toms is still sitting right at 0.0000%.

To the ultra smart biologists: quit with the “gobbling activity” crap. News flash: they quit gobbling so much when you hunt them hard! Gobbling activity means absolutely nothing to poult recruitment even though you all need it to for your far fetched theories. I can tell you that without spending a dime. Use some common sense you buncha’ dopes!

Also, please quit with the “late burning is fine” lies. Common sense…

I wish a good biologist with a voice and mind of their own would emerge! I may start a gofundme to put someone with a brain through school to combat these dingbats.

What are you basing your disease theory on? Just curious.
 

Hoosier06

DIPSTICK yankee
Thanks for posting. I’ve heard most all of that before. I disagree with a lot you and her said. I think habitat is a slight to moderate player (5-10%), unidentified disease is the king player (85-95%), and hunting season dates for killing Toms is still sitting right at 0.0000%.

To the ultra smart biologists: quit with the “gobbling activity” crap. News flash: they quit gobbling so much when you hunt them hard! Gobbling activity means absolutely nothing to poult recruitment even though you all need it to for your far fetched theories. I can tell you that without spending a dime. Use some common sense you buncha’ dopes!

Also, please quit with the “late burning is fine” lies. Common sense…

I wish a good biologist with a voice and mind of their own would emerge! I may start a gofundme to put someone with a brain through school to combat these dingbats.
I think sometimes it gets too "scientific " when the data pool is small. Turkeys are not an adaptive species and a nest season burn will wipe out a seasons worth of potential nests. It only takes two bad years to wipe turkeys out of an area and wirh the fractured habitat it is unlikely they will quickly repopulate those areas quickly.

I found a study from the 90s talking about pesticides having an impact on the populations as well.
 

FootLongDawg

Senior Member
Well I enjoyed your interview and her answers
Emily Rushton has Bachelors and Masters degrees in wildlife biology from UGA and is the wildlife biologist for the DNR Georgia Turkey Project. I will tend to side with her when the discussion topic is wild turkeys in Georgia.



Couldn't agree more. I enjoyed this interview and her answers despite what the armchair biologist might say
 

buckpasser

Senior Member
What are you basing your disease theory on? Just curious.

Well, for starters, turkeys in my area and the greater area of people I’m in close contact with didn’t dwindle. They dropped rapidly. “The entire southeast” is down, I keep hearing, from the scientific community. That’s a large and diverse region to be pinned on weather, hunting, burning, hahitat, etc. It just makes more sense that a disease might be the culprit. It makes at least equal sense to a picky hen, low T theory and age old season dates being wrong, wouldn’t you say?

Besides that, I have (marginally illegally, hmm, hmm) hatched and raised two clutches of wild turkeys from destroyed nests here on my property (one mowed over and one burned over nest). Here, with daily care and a brooder, feeding on a diverse diet and all the crickets they could eat, both flocks wound up suffering through avian pox or what the gamers would call “foul pox”. They took heavy losses even being babied by me behind chicken wire. Out in the bushes wandering around with swollen eyelids, I’d say they would have been basically all lost.

That’s where I’m coming from, and I’m pretty darn disappointed in the nonsense I keep hearing from both sides of the biologists mouths. On the one hand, we’re screwing them up by hunting and we need a synchronized hatch…on the other, burn away! They can renest multiple times, donchaknow!

:mad:
 
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buckpasser

Senior Member
I think sometimes it gets too "scientific " when the data pool is small. Turkeys are not an adaptive species and a nest season burn will wipe out a seasons worth of potential nests. It only takes two bad years to wipe turkeys out of an area and wirh the fractured habitat it is unlikely they will quickly repopulate those areas quickly.

I found a study from the 90s talking about pesticides having an impact on the populations as well.

You can find published scientific papers about why one should NOT burn late when managing for turkeys. It was even listed in the top 2 causes of population decline in one UGA study I posted here a while back. Now, when turkeys might need a little help, it’s no biggie. Burn anytime!
 
Its interesting how all of these turkey studies ignore or skirt topics that are tied to the almighty dollar:

- Late season burns...last week of April on cedar creek for example........nope, timber industry.

- Chicken manure/disease/worm theory........nope, poultry/agriculture industry.

- Male Decoys and the "dominant toms dying theory".....nope, hunting retail industry.

I would love to see an accredited UGA biologist studying these theories debunk any of these. Sadly i doubt we ever will as a wild turkey stands no chance to the almighty dollar, no?

Ps how do i remove this stupid "uaec" thing from my profile name and replace it with uga?
 

buckpasser

Senior Member
Well I enjoyed your interview and her answers



Couldn't agree more. I enjoyed this interview and her answers despite what the armchair biologist might say

Scientists need never be questioned. Just you remember that as this country goes over the cliff the avoid the coming heat apocalypse and oceanic flood, or was it ice age? Either way, do what they say and don’t think for yourself.
 

mguthrie

**# 1 Fan**OHIO STATE**
Hate on me if you will, but they don’t have the data to back up the bull crap yet.
I’m not hating on you. I just prefer to leave it up to the biologist’s. My anecdotal insight from one or 2 properties isn’t scientific at all. It’s just what I see. We have a good turkey population on my lease. Not as many as 20 years ago but we have a lot more hogs now to than we did 20 years ago. I believe hogs get a good number of nests there. Nobody traps predators on our lease either.
 

buckpasser

Senior Member
What are you basing your disease theory on? Just curious.

And BTW Charlie, to clarify, I’m not listing that as the priority of importance in my mind as it relates to turkey populations in general. I’m only stating those guess stats as they might relate to the recent DECLINE of turkeys in the SE.
 

mguthrie

**# 1 Fan**OHIO STATE**
Its interesting how all of these turkey studies ignore or skirt topics that are tied to the almighty dollar:

- Late season burns...last week of April on cedar creek for example........nope, timber industry.

- Chicken manure/disease/worm theory........nope, poultry/agriculture industry.

- Male Decoys and the "dominant toms dying theory".....nope, hunting retail industry.

I would love to see an accredited UGA biologist studying these theories debunk any of these. Sadly i doubt we ever will as a wild turkey stands no chance to the almighty dollar, no?

Ps how do i remove this stupid "uaec" thing from my profile name and replace it with uga?
They’ve been burning on cedar creek since early February. I was down through there last weekend and seen a bunch of burnt areas. Maybe they’re done for the season there
 
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