Tracking Predators to Help Turkeys

Here’s an interesting story from The Huntsville Item of Huntsville, Texas on the trapping of predators to fit them with tracking devices in order to determine the degree of impact that they are having on the eastern wild turkey populations
in East Texas.
The $3,000

high-tech radio collars use “global positioning
satellite technology to record hourly positions of the animal from dusk
to dawn and once at midday,” according to the article.
 

Haemish Melville, a 37-year old wildlife research scientist from South Africa, is working on his doctorate’s
degree at Texas A&M University and is helping with the study.

“I think everyone acknowledges that predators have had an impact
on the turkey populations, but whether they are the main cause of the
problems the turkeys are having remains up for debate,” Melville said.
“What we are trying to find out is if the mesocarnivores are having a
substantial influence on the recruitment of wild turkeys, or if the
problems we are seeing are more of a combination of the other factors
in conjunction with predation.”

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