6-01 current events post

A picture and a thousand words

ALAN BLEWETT PHOTO

It's been 112 years since Ontario outlawed the autumn wild-turkey hunt. This week, it returns. With a robust population of 70,000 across the province, it's hard to believe they were once hunted to extinction

Oct 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Be the first to comment on this article... Robert Alison Special to the Star

Let us now consider the humble turkey.

In the late 1700s, wild turkeys were so abundant in Ontario that settlers and farmers considered them to be pests. The birds' habit of pillaging crops became so rampant that periodic bounties were paid in parts of southern Ontario to thin their ranks.

Scarcely 100 years later, they were extinct here.

This year, Thanksgiving brings mixed blessings for Ontario's wild turkeys: The province's first autumn wild turkey hunt in 112 years – originally planned for early October – has been deferred until after tomorrow's poultry-unfriendly holiday. Once it starts on Tuesday, however, it will run for almost two weeks (till Oct. 26).

"We delayed it to avoid potential conflicts with other outdoor activities, particularly on Thanksgiving weekend," says Patrick Hubert, an avian specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

The postponement also addresses a concern: Recent sightings of newly hatched wild turkeys suggest there will be a lot of small turkey chicks in family groups. The late hatch is apparently due to a cold, wet spring, which killed off earlier broods. In addition, many hens appear to have re-nested late.

"There could be a lot of inexperienced young turkeys around," Hubert says, "and, in general, fall turkeys are less wary than in the spring."
In Ontario, spring wild turkey hunting has taken place since 1987, but only gobblers (males), not hens, may be lawfully harvested in that season. There has not been an open season on hen turkeys in Ontario since the 1890s, only a decade or so before Ontario's native wild turkeys vanished. (The last one died near Aurora in 1909.)

Between 1909 and 1975, Ontario had no wild turkey management program and no wild turkeys. The following year, I initiated the current re-introduction program. Its original aim was to provide opportunities for people to see wild turkeys in their original Ontario range. But, since then, hunting has emerged as a primary goal.

The current Ontario wild turkey population is about 70,000, enough to warrant a fall turkey hunt, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. To quote the province's official wild-turkey management plan: "The wild turkey has been restored as an important component of the biodiversity of southern Ontario."

The earliest record of wild turkeys in Ontario was in 1624, when Recollect priest Gabriel Sagard reported them near Georgian Bay. A 1931 Royal Ontario Museum report, authored by zoologist L.L. Snyder, confirmed that wild turkeys were "common" in Ontario until the 1880s.

Live trapping for sale in public markets was a major reason for the disappearance of Ontario's original wild turkeys. The practice was first described in 1838 by Thomas Need. In 1866, Major Ross King wrote that wild turkey trapping was "rampant," even though it had been outlawed in 1839.

The banning of wild-turkey trapping was one of Ontario's first conservation laws. In the 1970s, Ontario prepared to launch a wild-turkey reintroduction program. The MNR invited James Pack, a West Virginia wild turkey specialist, to identify suitable turkey habitat. "I saw some very good sites," he reported.

By 1983, most of the logistics had been worked out, and the next year, 74 wild turkeys that had been live-trapped in Michigan and Missouri were released in Ontario near Napanee.

A few local residents complained that the birds were too tame, venturing into gardens and yards, scratching in flowerbeds and fouling lawns. Over the next few years, wilder and more elusive stock was imported from Iowa, New York, Vermont, New Jersey and Tennessee and released at dozens of sites. Local flocks began to grow.

Eventually, Ontario stopped importing turkeys from the United States and began relocating turkeys from established Ontario populations. According to MNR records, between 1987 and 2005, about 4,000 wild turkeys were relocated to 275 different sites.

On top of the official re-introductions, there were several unofficial releases in parts of Ontario. Officials with The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario surmise that unofficial releases were responsible for current turkey sightings in Thunder Bay and Rainy River.

According to the MNR's Hubert, Ontario's wild turkey population is robust and the birds widespread. Atlas information indicates the birds can be found as far north as Ottawa, northern Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing and the Bruce Peninsula.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters says Ontario's wild-turkey program has been enormously popular with hunters. "On my travels around the province, I am hearing that a lot of folks are up for fall turkey hunting," says Mark Clifford, a National Wild Turkey Federation representative in Aylmer. "I will be out there myself."

However, there have been some drawbacks. Negative "human-turkey interactions" have generated a variety of complaints.

"Most negative interactions develop as a result of the birds searching for food," the management plan states. "The most common complaints: feeding on recently planted fields, scratching in winter wheat and hay bales, causing damage to fruit crops, and being aggressive towards people and pets."

Once the fall hunt concludes, another concern will come into play. Ontario is on the northern edge of the continental wild turkey range, and winter survival is an unknown factor. "Cold temperatures and snow depths over 25 cm for several weeks" can be fatal to wild turkeys, says MNR's Pack.

According to Josef Hamr, an ecologist at Cambrian College, in some severe Ontario winters, emaciated wild turkeys are frequently encountered.

"They often die in such conditions," adds biologist Linh Nguyen of Laurentian University, who studied wild turkeys in several Ontario winters.

Ontario's harsh winter of 2008 did cause some wild turkey "mortality events," according to the MNR. But, while the birds' numbers no longer rival those of the 1700s, the province's turkey population remains substantial.

Robert Alison, now retired, was an avian specialist with the Ministry of Natural Resources


Summary: In the late 17oo's there were so many wild turkeys that they damaged crops. Farmers hunted them and people trapped them to sell in markets and they became extinct in Ontario by the late 1800's. In the early 1980's the Ministry of Natural Resources started to release new turkeys in Ontario by bringing them from the United States. Now there are about 70,000 turkeys in Ontario and the MNR has created a two week fall turkey hunt for the first time in 112 years.

Qeustions:
1. Will turkys ever become extinct in Ontario again?
2. Do you think the MNR has made the turkey hunt long enough or should they make it longer?
3. Have you ever seen a wild turkey and if so where?

Link to course topics:
I think my artical can connect to our coures topics because, the first nations people had to hunt to animals for their food and to survive.