DFW sampling turkeys?

[Hangfire]

I ran into a neighbor in a store couple days ago. He mentioned a friend of his who works for FW (non bio or law) is helping a bio sampling turkeys  in the Colvile area. He said they are killing two here and two there and sending the dead Turkey's to Oregon for work up. Any one heard of this? A reason other than routine health check?

[yelp]

Here are the links to past threads.


http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,57964.0.html

http://fwl.oregonstate.edu/labs/dugger/html/turkey-research.html

The only thing I can think of is that they may have been short a few turkey crops for the dietary study.  Winter food habits would be hard to sample from hunter harvest.  I would think that the data would be skewed however.  Winter diets vary..from oat hay, grain, pine nuts..etc.  Being opportunistic feeders I would bet that many of the easiest found turkeys to sample would take be near cattle farms or agricultural areas where they would normally frequent.   Winter diets vary depending on enviromental conditions.  I also believe that the most nuisance issues come from Stevens county due to the higher population of turkeys up there.  But winter diets of wild turkeys in the Klickitat maybe totally different.  IF they are taking winter samples hopefully they are taking samples through out the state. 

[yelp]

Another scenario could be wild turkeys that were killed under a "kill permit" (usually issued to a landowner for damage causing wildlife (i.e. deer, turkey, etc)), these are usually issued by enforcement officers.. so maybe it was an opportunity to add wild turkeys to the study.  However like I stated above..the dietiary findings would be one sided.  I guarantee there are wild turkeys out on ponderosa pine flats/ridges in Ferry/Stevens/PendOrielle/Okanogan/Chelan counties, etc..scratching through pine litter/dander and eating insects and pine nuts.  I have even observed wild turkeys cleaning up old apple orchards.  just saying.

[turkeydancer]

The food studies were not done throughout the state, but are being done at various times of the year.  I have been sending spring, early fall and late fall crops in ... follow the links provided by Yelp and they will tell you more.

My initial understanding was this was going to be a food study about our Eastern populations.  Then when it did start, I was surprised that they decided to do it on our states most abundant subspecies.  Go figure why we need it for the birds that are doing good versus those that could use a little more help.  
     

[Wacenturion]

The food studies were not done throughout the state, but are being done at various times of the year.  I have been sending spring, early fall and late fall crops in ... follow the links provided by Yelp and they will tell you more.

My initial understanding was this was going to be a food study about our Eastern populations.  Then when it did start, I was surprised that they decided to do it on our states most abundant subspecies.  Go figure why we need it for the birds that are doing good versus those that could use a little more help.  
     

Perhaps because they might like to find something negative about what they are eating.....like in we can't ever release more.  Try that on for a reason.

Secondly why the hell are they now randomly shooting birds outside the season for crying out loud.  Aren't seasons liberal enough...aren't we decimating the flocks fast enough?  Yep easy birds hanging around a nuisance site will give you good data huh?  Like sampling Yogi Bear scat at the campground.  Bunch of morons.  

Don't you think food habit studies have been done before...of course Montana or Arizona birds are so damn different........what a freakin waste of time.    

[Hangfire]

I contacted the region 1 office. The receptionest didn't know anything about it. She transferred me to some one who would. He was not in, I left a voice mail asking to be called. I have had very good luck being called back when leaving a voice mail in the past, although the reply may be two weeks in coming. When I hear some thing from the horses mouth I will put it on here.

[Hangfire]

I just received my phone call. The birds were at the request of the Oregon grad. student. She did not get enough birds from the fall hunters, and need more as soon as she could get them. They waited until the ground had opened up so they would have birds feeding on natural feed, not hay.

[lokidog]

I am going back to grad school to do a study on WA bighorn sheep to see if there is a correlation between heart size and elevation found.  I don't want anyone lying about where they got the sheep so I think I better go harvest the 43 I need for the study myself.....

What a bunch of crap to kill birds outside of the season, just another way to reduce opportunity for sportsmen (and women).