| Iowa's primitive oak-hickory forests covered
nearly 7 million acres (2.8 million ha) during the original land survey
in 1859. Settlers' records indicate turkeys were associated with most of
this timber. Although turkeys may not have been as numerous in Iowa as
in their primary range east of the Mississippi River, they were still plentiful.
Unfortunately, wild turkeys were eliminated from Iowa by the early 1900's
due to habitat loss and partly because of uncontrolled subsistence hunting.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources
(IDNR) began experimenting with turkey restoration in 1920 using pen-reared
birds. Releases were made over the next 18 years but all releases were
uniform failures. By 1960 no known wild turkey populations existed in Iowa.
The first attempts at releasing transplanted
wild turkeys were in the early 1960's. Rio Grande and Merriam's subspecies
were released at several sites during the 1960's but ultimately their poor
adaptation to Iowa's oak-hickory forest led to population failures for
both subspecies.
The first release of Eastern wild turkeys
was in 1966 in Lee County. The population response of these turkeys was
phenomenal - survival of released birds, reproduction, and poult survival
were all excellent. The success of this Eastern subspecies stocking led
to an additional stocking that also proved successful. By 1971 it was obvious
that the Eastern subspecies was the turkey to use in future restoration
attempts.
Since the initial 1965 release, 3,063 Eastern
wild turkeys have been released at 220 sites at a stocking rate of approximately
3 adult gobblers and 10 hens per site. Nearly all sites are considered
successful, however the most recent stockings are still being evaluated.
No sites are currently considered to be unsuccessful. Most sites were opened
to hunting after populations were established, usually about 5 years post-stocking.
Restoration efforts by the IDNR during the last 2 decades have returned
wild turkeys to about 95% of the remnant timber stands in the state.
Some in-state translocations continue,
but the majority of trapping effort is to assist other states in their
restoration efforts. During the 1994-95 season we shipped 401 turkeys to
Texas (297 hens, 70 toms, 34 jakes) and 172 (130 hens, 16 toms, 26 jakes)
to Kentucky. During the 1995-96 season we shipped 404 turkeys to Texas
(300 hens, 84 toms, 20 jakes), 109 to Louisiana (83 hens, 24 toms, 2 jakes),
and 92 (66 hens, 23 toms, 3 jakes) to Kentucky. During the 1999-2000 trapping
season, Iowa shipped 363 turkeys to Washington (290 females; 73 males)
and 61 to South Dakota (45 females: 16 males). In addition, 163 (114
females; 49 males) birds were moved in-state.
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