Turkeys and Quail

V

V-John

Active member
With spring turkey season coming up, and the off season here, what are your thoughts on the increase of turkeys and the decline of quail numbers? I've had several conversations about this and it seems that the biologists don't see a correlation. In fact, I believe that our very own Prairie Drifter is one of those folks.
I don't have any stats per se, but I do believe that the turkey numbers have negatively impacted quail numbers. It's just another thing that is distrubing nesting and another critter to compete with for habititat.

But of course, that's just my opinion. What are your thoughts?
(yes, I realize that this is a "pheasant" forum, but thought that I would see what the local guys thought...)
 
A guy told my dad that he saw a turkey kill an entire nest of baby quail, but who knows. I have heard both sides of the discussion about whether or not there is any correlation.
 
i have also heard stories of turkey being shot with baby quail in them. Well unless you are poaching turkeys out of season, that is an impossibility. My .02 cents, which is now worth .01, is that if you have good habitat you will have quail. We will never see quail numbers like we had in the 70's. But i do think we could hve sustainable numbers. How many old hedge rows or plum thickets have you seen bulldozed over the years? Quail need some overhead cover with some grass in it. The ditch to ditch farming and the use of Roundup on these fields have done far more damage then turkeys ever could, if they did mess with them. People always want to go back to predators or turkeys, i have also heard deer, but the real reason is human. When i was a kid it took longer to drive to the farm then it did to shoot a limit of quail. The current farm landscape is far more conducive to turkeys than it is quail. They are much stronger and able to feed themselves when the weather is foul. Because they are larger and roost in trees, they are less likely to fall prey to predators. I do long for the old days of quail hunting.
 
Carptom,
I've always wondered about the timing of the story my dad heard. I thought the guy said he witnessed this from a tree stand. Not sure what he was doing in a tree stand at a time of year when baby quail were around. I agree about the farming practices. We had tons of hedge rows around when I was a kid and never had to travel more than 10 minutes from home to shoot a limit.
 
I think turkeys are opportunistic feeders and would and probably do eat fledgling quail, but I doubt they have any serious impact. I'm equally sure turkeys don't seek out quail to eat, anymore than berries, locusts, grasshoppers, etc., just what they come across. I do know that I have found many a turkey nest, destroyed by a predator, with feathers everywhere indicating it also got the hen, as well as the eggs. So the predator issue works against both the turkey and the quail. Decent spring weather and increased effort toward habitat restoration would be the recipe for success.
 
I have personally witnessed turkeys snacking on baby quail on more than one occasion. I don't think that is the big problem, I believe the problem is that turkeys (im the same habitat) out compete quail and pheasants for prime nesting cover. That is what is happening here on one of our best NWR here. This year they bagged 76 pheasants on opening morning there and 75 turkeys (fall turkey starts on the pheasant opener). Historically this NWR produces around 200 plus roosters opening morning.
 
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