See a wild turkey? Idaho Fish and Game wants to know

Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game’s Turkey Tracker project is bringing turkey surveying to the Gem State.

Idahoans will be encouraged to participate in two separate surveys to better understand the wild turkey population in Idaho. A brood survey measuring offspring will be conducted through July and August, while a broader distribution survey will be conducted throughout the year.

Jeff Knetter, upland bird and migratory game bird coordinator, said that Fish and Game already collects harvest estimates annually to gauge the number of hunters, the number of turkeys harvested and the number of days needed to harvest a bird.

The new surveys will be used to “get a better sense of the direction that a turkey population is headed,” Knetter said.

The brood survey seeks to determine the number of offspring produced in the turkey population. According to a press release from Fish and Game, seeing how many poults, or young turkeys, survive is the primary factor that helps understand turkey population trends.

The distribution survey will be carried out throughout the year to determine where turkeys are located in Idaho and gain a better understanding of whether the wild turkey’s available habitat is widening or shrinking, the release said.

“We want to know how many hens are out there, how many juveniles are out there; that’s the information that will tell us about productivity on an annual basis,” Knetter said. “We want to get as many observations as we can from as wide of a geographic area in Idaho as we can.”

Idaho adopting the turkey surveying practice is part of a wider, national effort to better understand turkey population trends and offspring productivity, Knetter said.

Knetter said that the states participating will have a standardized method of gathering and analyzing the data, allowing different states to compare their data to others across the country.

All members of the public are encouraged to participate in the survey efforts. Residents can submit a report using the Fish and Game website or the ArcGIS Survey123 app. Survey participants can also choose to provide a photo with their reporting, but photos are not required.

“We hope that it’s kind of a fun exercise,” Knetter said. “Its been interesting looking at the data come in.”

Knetter said residents have uploaded anything from photos taken with a wildlife camera to photos of wild turkeys taken from inside a home.

In a press release, the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), which has a chapter in Idaho, hailed the move to bring Turkey surveying to Idaho as a “big step forward.”

Hannah McKinney, writer for the federation, said that the organization’s principle focus is on being up-to-date on any research concerning wild turkeys in the United States. Of particular importance is getting current information on wild turkey population numbers.

McKinney said that these numbers can be helpful to both scientists and hunters.

For wildlife managers and biologists, these numbers provide an understanding of the direction a wild turkey population is trending. For hunters, the numbers determine how many birds can be harvested in a season, as well as whether hunting season needs to be pushed back or moved up to work around broods.

Though similar surveys have been taking place in Eastern states for nearly 40 years, they are much less common in Western states, making Idaho’s development somewhat unique regionally, NWTF said in the release.

McKinney said Washington state was the only other Western state she knew of to have introduced a survey program in partnership with NWTF. The state’s survey program launched in 2022.

Although wild turkeys can be found in parks and even residential areas throughout Idaho, the bird wasn’t introduced to the Gem State until 1961. According to the Department of Fish and Game website , three different turkey subspecies were introduced to the state:

Merriam’s wild turkeys, introduced in 1961, were first released in the Salmon River drainage near Whitebird.Rio Grande wild turkeys, introduced in 1982, were released along the Boise, Payette, Snake and Weiser rivers.Eastern wild turkeys, introduced in 1985, were released near the Dworshak Reservoir.

Knetter said that the introduction was motivated by Fish and Game looking to provide Idahoans with additional opportunity for game hunting.

“It’s really taken off since then,” Knetter said.

The separate species have since dispersed and hybrid turkeys can now be found across the state, the website said. Fish and Game estimates Idaho to have as many as 50,000 wild turkeys.

“They’ve really become a success story in the state of Idaho,” Knetter said. “I would argue that they’ve occupied as much available habitat as they can statewide and provide both a great hunting opportunity a great viewing opportunity.”