Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs gobbler home ranges in spring

I know we have had some lively debates about gobbler home ranges. This is an interesting study looking at that issue recently.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.11302

In a nutshell
Mean gobbler home range in breeding season was 2,894 acres with a range of 1,525 - 15,607 acres
Daily home range in breeding season was 384 acres with a range of 7 - 6,501 acres
Distance between nightly roost sites averaged .74 miles and ranged from 0 - 3.8 miles
Just thought it was interesting!

Now now. Hold up. What about that gobbler that roosts in the same spot every night?! 😜

That's why you hear 5 one morning then none for three days then 1 then 4 then none. The stupid things just ramble around and get killed everywhere. Also why they just fire up at 9am some times, cause they finally walked into hearing.

All season! Some are special

Great info!

It shows the fallacy of thinking you can somehow "manage" the gobblers on properties of a few hundred acres.

I read some where awhile back that they could walk up to 12 miles a day

Thanks for the useful, factual info!!!

Stories suck when you cannot have a chess match with the same bird. Hard to feel vindicated after hunting a bird all season and finally killing a 2 year old that wandered in that morning. Therefore I am invoking my right to forget the story and continue my ignorance of naming turkeys!!!!

They walk just as fast as you would leisurely stroll. They could make 12 miles pretty easy.

I’m pretty sure turkeys in Nebraska walk 12 miles in the first hour of the day. Those suckers can be on a mission when they are on public land and need to get to safety

So do they move that far every day or just thruout the season? Sarc

I know of an area the birds move a good distance every day it seems.
I know the creek bottom I hunted for so long. All 8 miles of it. The exact same number of birds would pitch into the field first thing in the morning and then at last light they’ll comeback in. Hens leading the way. There were certain spots that historically held birds during the season. The drain at the farm side of Jerry’s would usually harbor 2 longbeards and a hen or two. They’d pitch down and head to the adjoining landowners field. Then to the next landowner. Then in the evening they make their way back. If they didn’t play and went straight to the field it was over. You could see them from the gravel road thru the gap.

We had a bird named sprout. He was Jerry’s for a few days and then two landowners over and then the last place I saw him was about 6 miles north in a field along the same creek bottom. Jerry saw him a week or so after the season ended. We guessed he was as shot by a road hunter. His beard literally shot straight out and then drooped a little.

There’s a lot of “ifs” “ands” or “buts” and it depends scenarios as point out by the narrow to wide range of movements.

I’ve always been told turkeys move in circles. Read where in Texas they live in up to 60 mile circles.
I always assumed at Jerry’s we had the staging area of transitioning between the hardwood hills and the springtime nesting, bugging and brood rearing habitat of the creek bottom with ag land. Too much hunting pressure from down on the creek and birds would end back up at Jerry’s.

I imagine some subspecies movement differs. Rios seemed to hit the ground running

To be fair - one of those jokers in the study roosted in the same tree apparently and used a total of 7 acres on the regular.

7 acres in one day. But, yes they vary



I feel the same - conflicted!

It seems that one of the more beautiful and yet maddening parts of wildlife research is the wide ranging variability in such things as population dynamics and home range...

Yep. It don’t matter if it’s home ranges and habitat use on snakes, bats, turkeys or deer, the variability in what an individual might do compared to the collective average is amazing. I’ve learned to not say never or always in wildlife cause it’s just not so.

I think that’s my point of contention. Absolutes rarely exist and anomalies are more commonplace.

Like dealing with digital files especially in the early days. 90% of the time everything fell into place. That remaining 10% of images I spent 90% of my time fixing them. I feel everything else falls similarly. That’s why I pointed out in the podcast saying it’s not all or nothing.

On further examination - it could be that only one bird roosted in the same tree, two nights in a row. And one strutted around on 7 acres one individual day.

However - we don’t get that breakdown.

It’s hard to argue with tracking data saying he moved 3 miles when you have turkeys that seem to roost on the same 2 acres day in and day out. Only way I can make it make sense in my head is turkeys are like largemouth bass. You catch one off a good stump and there is another one there the next day. For whatever the reason bass just like that stump and gravitate to it. Seems to be the same with turkeys. That 2 acres always has a turkey roosted on it because turkeys just gravitate to it. It’s rarely the same turkey but there is always one there.

Mostly horseshit I know but it’s the only way I can make it seem logical in my head.

It’s been my experience that in the early season when gobbling is at a minimum, they don’t move very much at all. Like not off 40 acres or less type movement. When the hens start nesting, the gobbling starts to peak, and they get to moving. Gobblers are like migrant workers in late season. They’ll set up shop in one tract of timber and gobble. If there’s no work there(hens to breed), then they keep moving til they find work. This phase of the season is when you start hearing birds in places you don’t normally hear them in.

It’s been this way for as long as I can remember every single year.

yeap !!!!!! people that do say never or wont probably aint hunted much .

This^^