Turkey / Deer

:hmm: Here is a question that some of us in the East are wondering about. Has any one notice that there seems to be areas that have large groups of wild turkey that once had large deer population, but now have less of a deer populaton.

Frenchman said:

:hmm: Here is a question that some of us in the East are wondering about. Has any one notice that there seems to be areas that have large groups of wild turkey that once had large deer population, but now have less of a deer populaton.

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I havn't noticed that where I hunt in NC...our turkey population is has really grown during the past 10-15 years to the point where I see them almost every trip or so while deer hunting.
And our deer population also continues to grow...my understanding has always been that deer & turkeys live well together.

Kentucky about the same as Roundball reports in N.C., deer, turkey and even elk populations growing rapidly. A tremendous acron drop this fall is likely to help even more (sure hurt the deer harvest results). The only limiting factor on the deer or turkey around here seems to be the coyotes. In areas where their population becomes noticiably high, it seems that turkey and deer numbers suffer a bit.

Yep....Deer & other wildlife compete for the same feed that the turkeys are eating. When you start to have flocks of 100+ turkeys scouring the woods for feed and turning over about every leaf until the feed supply is about depleted the other populations start to suffer.

Anumber of folks have told me that pigs are more of a threat to deer populations than turkeys. I am not knowledgeable enough to comment. Regards, ron in Venice, FL

OK,Fellas,here are a few comments on the "basics" of deer and turkey management :winking:.

Manage for either,and you will increase the population of both about equally.Some basics are:Create openings in mature timber by selectively thinning favoring a residual stand of both hardwoods and mature pine.(Deer won't benefit from pine,but turkey feed on the seed).Plant grain crops and clover if you maintain food plots.If chufas will grow in your area,be sure to plant this because turkeys have no more favored tidbits than chufas.If you can control burn the woods in your area,set up a burning program and burn on about 3 year cycles.This will do wonders for both deer and turkeys. Hey,this could go on and on....

To date all research shows that coyotes are no threat to healthy turkeys or deer.You can go to the bank with this one :winking:.Only one very minor negative case of coyotes on deer is recorded,and that is in south central Georgia. Here large cotton and peanut fields have concentrated the does dropping fawns in very narrow and confined creek drainage systems.Coyotes have learned to go through these areas spread out in groups looking for does in the process of giving birth or weakened from birthing.But even here it's not anything major.Fawns aren't too much of a target....there's no odor for a coyote to pick up on,and a three day old fawn can run like heck.Call coyotes and shoot 'em all you like.It's fun.But don't worry about yodel dogs being much of a problem on either deer or turkeys.Rats and mice,yes.But not deer or turkeys.

The greatest problem to both deer and turkey...most especially turkey...is feral hogs.Please believe me when I say that the most important limiting factor on turkeys is feral hogs.Everything EVERYTHING a turkey needs in its diet is consumed in major amounts by hogs.Eradicate feral hogs and you'll be doing everything that lives in the woods a hellova big favor!

My personal experience is when you find Turkeys you'll see deer and visa versa. They seem to use each other for alert reasons.

Well I know the last few years our biggest predator problem has been Humans,but at least they are equal they've killed out all our Deer and Turkeys around here.But like all other predators they will go somewhere else until populations come back up.

You can't have one person taking 50+ Turkeys and 20+ Deer every year plus what everyone else takes.Without hurting the population.But I can go 30 miles down the road and kill all the Deer and Turkey I want.

Blue Smoke

I agree with RounBall. I have seen a strong turkey and deer population lately. Nothing seems to indicate that the two infringe on the needs of the other.

CS

Roundball is correct in his statement. Habitat requirements/preferences of the two species are very similar and overlap. Competition is virtually non-existant.

gmww said:

My personal experience is when you find Turkeys you'll see deer and visa versa.

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Well MY personal experience is that when I'm hunting turkeys I see deer and visa versa. But they cohabitate around here quite well.

The same flock of 27 hen turkeys has been passing through my yard every day now for about 5 months, as has the same 8 whitetail does with fawns for over a year. The little yellow wolf (about 5 of them) never comes closer than about 150 ft from the house as he watches both the hens and deer but he causes them no harm,(he wishes) and has to make a living on the field mice.

I have to chime in with Der Foster said, Feral hogs are way more damaging to all the local wildlife.
If you ever figure out to eradicate them, please let me know!!

Blue Smoke said:

Well I know the last few years our biggest predator problem has been Humans,but at least they are equal they've killed out all our Deer and Turkeys around here.But like all other predators they will go somewhere else until populations come back up.

You can't have one person taking 50+ Turkeys and 20+ Deer every year plus what everyone else takes.Without hurting the population.But I can go 30 miles down the road and kill all the Deer and Turkey I want.

Blue Smoke

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Unfortunately those characters live on both sides of me. The $50 fine the judge imposes on them has discouraged the Game Warden, he won't bust 'em. :cursing: