In a January 6 press release, the PA Game Commission (PGC) requested public help in locating turkey flocks in the state for ongoing research.

Trapping turkeys during winter is part of PGC’s ongoing population monitoring as well as the launch of a large-scale hen study. As in the last six winters, male turkeys will be banded; hunters who harvest a banded turkey or people who find one dead are asked to call the toll-free number on the band, or contact the URL, which is also on the band.

The goal of this project is to find trappable flocks. This year, there will be no transmitters deployed; male turkeys will be banded and released on site. Finding a site that is suitable for trapping that actually has turkeys in the vicinity can be an involved task, and the public’s help has proven to be an invaluable tool.

“By reporting banded turkeys, hunters provide us with important information on harvest rates for our population model,” said Reina Tyl, the game commission’s wild turkey biologist. “In return, the hunter gets to learn when and approximately where the turkey was banded. If the turkey was banded the first winter after it hatched, we can also provide the hunter with an exact age of the turkey they harvested.”

When you are on public or private land in PA and you see a flock of turkeys, you can submit the info (number, sex and time) at www.pgcforms.pa.gov/TurkeySightingSurvey.