Our conservation has been doing some turkey banding on our farm,and of course the conversation led to turkey hunting/numbers.
I brought up the subject of predator control and number of nests being destroyed.The biologist told me thay had done some informal studies and had come up with a theory that had never really come into my mind,but it kind of made sense after he explained it.
He asked me what are the main egg eaters?Answer:coons,possums,skunks,small mammals of the such.He said what about poults and juvenile/adult birds?Answer:coyotes,bobcats,hawks,poaching.
He said in there "study",they had found that areas with a sustained/balanced coyote population the turkey numbers were actually to be find somewhat
higher,and here was his explanation.
Bobcats tend to eat young/adult birds,they do not destroy nest nor do they as a norm eat small animals such as the coons and possums.They will eat them,but do not actively seek them like coyotes.Coyotes are hard on everything,from possums and coons to turkeys and yes bobcats.He said the areas with the coyotes seemed to have the better bird numbers because the coyotes worked to keep the nest destroying animals in
check.Do they prey on small and adult turkeys?Sure,just like the bobcats.But he stated that the bobcats have a tendency NOT to prey on those types of critters,and as a result more nest destroying takes place.
He stated lots of other factors come into play here;habitat loss and weather being the main ones,but he thought it was interesting that everywhere they had done a little research into this that it held true.He said he is trying to find a way to conduct a more formal study to see how it pans out.
I cant say if I agree or disagree,but it does merit some thought.He was adament about stating that an area cant be overrun with coyotes for this to be true,but the population must be in balance to support the idea.He said areas void of or with very little coyotes always seemed to have lower turkey numbers.
Thought it was kind of interesting.
