Assessing wild turkeys in Rhode Island

Trying to better understand these majestic birds

Kristen Curry

Photo by Will Collette

New URI project launching this fall will study the state’s wild turkeys to better understand and maintain local population

Everyone’s talking turkey at this time of year. But Scott McWilliams’ lab at the University of Rhode Island is thinking about them in particular, hoping to call significant attention to the iconic New England bird.

The University’s Department of Natural Resources Science is launching a five-year study of the North American Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) to track its health and population in Rhode Island, in partnership with the state’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM).

Professor McWilliams, a certified wildlife biologist, says the team seeks to learn more about the reintroduced bird’s health in terms of disease prevalence, stressors, reproduction, and other habits.

“This is a well-known species, but we don’t know a lot about the drivers of this population,” he says.

Comeback clucks

All season visitors. Photo by Will Collette

Though the lively bird sometimes makes news—especially in city settings, thanks to its confident strutting around town—the fact that URI has subjects to study is cause for celebration.

Wild turkeys were extirpated (eliminated) in Rhode Island in the 1800s due to overharvesting, forest clearing, and land-use changes. Starting in 1980, DEM and the National Wild Turkey Federation began a wildlife restoration program, bringing 29 turkeys from Vermont to Exeter, followed by additional translocations through the 1990s—all crucial in getting the species reestablished in the state. Today, the wild turkey can now be found in all cities and towns in the state, except Block Island.

DEM staff say wild turkeys’ comeback in the state is “one of the true wildlife success stories.”

Turkey hunting was re-introduced in Rhode Island in 1985. This past spring, turkey hunters harvested 368 total birds, the highest recorded harvest to date. Several out-of-staters also came to Rhode Island to hunt, drawing hunters from Kansas, Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Turkeys were harvested in 27 of Rhode Island’s 39 towns, with Burrillville leading the way at 41 harvested; South Kingstown, URI’s hometown, reported 32 birds. The majority of those harvested were adult males—the traditional Tom, or Gobbler, Turkey.

McWilliams says the URI project will help Rhode Island DEM ensure proper management of this historic resource for future generations, in our state and beyond.

Jay Osenkowski ’98 ’03, deputy chief of fish and wildlife at DEM and a URI adjunct faculty member, adds, “This project will allow us to capitalize on the research expertise and dedicated personnel at URI to gain additional demographic data on our local turkey population. This will help bolster our existing data set and better understand the movement patterns of birds in both urban and suburban areas in Rhode Island.”

Talking turkey

This turkey spent much of one summer on my deck.
Photo by Will Collette

McWilliams is the coordinator of URI’s Ecology and Ecosystems specialization group, which brings together faculty and graduate students to solve ecological problems. The program provides graduate students with faculty mentorship while they learn research methods and designs; students in his lab have a robust publishing profile.

Postdoctoral fellow Dylan Bakner, along with graduate students Dekka Ducote and Richard Mercer ’21, will lead the lab’s new turkey project.

Rhode Island’s small yet varied geography will provide them a range of habitats in which to study the turkey. The team aims to understand whether and how disease limits wild turkey populations in the state and plans to monitor wild turkeys during the breeding season. With a focus on avian health, the study also includes URI Assistant Professor Johanna Harvey, and has received support from the Ocean State Fantails chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

How to catch a wild turkey

Carefully.

For scientific purposes, wild turkeys will be captured from December through March of this academic year using rocket nets, net guns, and/or walk-in traps—standard avian study measures—as well as GPS-VHF transmitters deployed to capture bird habit and movement data. URI will also use its on-campus GIS capability to analyze nest data.

URI’s team has already made estimations and conducted nesting studies to assess turkey habitats, hatching and nesting, to estimate survival and examine the population’s productivity. In the long term, they hope to develop a new population model and determine distribution and abundance. They also plan to assess geography to see if there are differences in rural and urban turkeys and compare populations for survival rates. The project also includes a disease aspect, looking at sources of mortality and diseases. Wild turkeys are susceptible to West Nile Virus, something that DEM is specifically interested in, as well as how disease prevalence may or may not influence reproduction.

McWilliams says the new study builds off a memorandum of agreement started several years ago with DEM, bringing together agency staff and URI faculty to partner and collaborate on environmental and life science issues. DEM’s Division of Fish and Wildlife has worked with URI biologists on many projects in recent years, from bobcats and bears to New England cottontail and American woodcock. He says the ongoing partnership recognizes expertise at URI and highlights ways that agencies and the University can work together collaboratively.

“The agencies gain expertise while our students get research experience serving institutions doing public work,” McWilliams said. “URI brings strong established connections, especially in applied ecology research. This is our mission as a land-grant institution.”