Turkey hunters could fetch $100 for turning in leg bands

Study will help officials estimate harvest rates

By FRITZ MAYER

Turkey hunters may get a cash bonus if they bag a gobbler this spring. Nine hundred wild turkeys have been fitted with aluminum bands, and let loose in the wilds of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Half of the birds have a $100 reward on their legs.

To collect the reward, the hunter simply has to call an 800 number listed on the band and report that the turkey has been harvested, said Carl G. Roe, Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) Executive Director.

The banded turkeys that don’t carry a reward also list an 800 number, but officials expect that significantly fewer of the non-reward bands will be reported. Hunters typically under-report turkey harvests by as much as 50 percent per year.

Dr. Duane Diefenbach, who is heading up the study at the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, said, “The study will enable the team to estimate reporting rates by comparing the number of $100 reward bands reported to the number of non-reward bands reported.” The study will also provide data on the overall population of wild turkeys in the three states.

Diefenbach said the banded turkeys all received the same treatment: they were captured, banded and released in the same location. Because the study is spread out over three states and four years, it will give researchers significant data.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Denise M. Sheehan said wild turkeys are the most popular small- game species in New York in terms of the number of days hunters are in the field. That puts turkeys behind deer as favored prey, but in front of rabbits, squirrels, pheasant and quail.

“These studies will provide invaluable information on turkey survival rates,” Sheehan said.

Officials were secretive about where the turkeys were banded, because they don’t want to steer a hoard of hunters to a particular spot in pursuit of a cash prize. They indicated, however, the birds have been widely distributed throughout the three states.

Hank Dauria, a Sullivan County resident and member of the National Wild Turkey Federation, which is co-sponsoring the study, said he did not want to be specific about the numbers of banded turkeys in the county, but he did say it’s more than just a few.

Dauria said the banding process, which is almost complete, took somewhat longer than expected because of the lack of snow cover. When there is snow cover, turkeys will readily be attracted to corn left as bait. But when there is no snow, turkeys are not so readily attracted because of the availability of other food.

Spring turkey season opens in Pennsylvania on April 29, and in New York on May 1.