{"id":70503,"date":"2024-11-12T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=70503"},"modified":"2024-11-13T10:52:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T15:52:48","slug":"the-wild-turkey-doc-chamberlain-translates-innovative-research-to-impactful-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/the-wild-turkey-doc-chamberlain-translates-innovative-research-to-impactful-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild Turkey Doc: Chamberlain translates innovative research to impactful conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mike Chamberlain grew up hunting turkey in Virginia. Wandering the woods, he was accustomed to hearing their distinct gobble. As years passed, though, he heard fewer birds cry out.<\/p>\n

At the time, he wasn\u2019t certain why. But when the opportunity came to study wild turkeys for his doctoral research, those days in the Virginia woods\u00a0moved him to take it.<\/p>\n

Now the National Wild Turkey Federation Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia\u2019s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources<\/a>, Chamberlain is on a mission to uncover causes for the wild turkey population decline. He hopes his research and communication efforts will raise awareness about what landowners, managers, and hunters can do to conserve wild turkeys around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to collect the most rigorous scientific information about turkeys and the threats they face so I can be a real steward for the birds and the landscapes they inhabit,\u201d said Chamberlain, who\u2019s become a world-renowned turkey expert <\/a>over the past 30 years, known to millions of podcast listeners as the \u201cWild Turkey Doc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chamberlain didn\u2019t expect to devote his entire career to these feathered forest foragers, but once he began to study them, he was fascinated. As technology advanced and researchers could capture better data using more sophisticated tracking devices, he became hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data confirmed that the turkey population is declining in many areas, but we weren’t sure why,\u201d Chamberlain said. \u201cI\u2019ve really accelerated my research to try and understand what\u2019s been driving that shift.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Identifying the problem<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no singular reason the turkey population is dwindling in many regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many species, turkeys are dealing with a loss and degradation of habitat,\u201d Chamberlain said. \u201cThey\u2019re also suffering from incredibly high predation rates and emerging disease issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideal turkey habitats have stable roosting locations, along with shrubs or clumps of grass to help conceal their nests from predators. But turkeys also need reliable sightlines to see those predators\u2014coyotes, bobcats, and more.<\/p>\n

Many forested areas have become fragmented or converted into pine trees accompanied by thick undergrowth. Others have been overtaken by urbanization and development. As prime turkey habitat disappears, predation rates have increased, holding implications for other ecological issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkeys thrive in habitats that a suite of other species also thrives in,\u201d Chamberlain said. \u201cIf turkeys are declining, it’s indicative of problems that are going to extend to many other species.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Warnell Professor Michael Chamberlain (left) and Ph.D. student Nickolas Gulotta use radio tracking equipment in Whitehall Forest. (Photo by Chamberlain Smith)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Turkeys prefer early successional vegetative communities, like areas dominated by grasses and native flowering plants. But they also require a diverse array of habitats to meet their seasonal needs throughout the year. So, to have a healthy turkey population, a region needs to offer a diverse selection of habitats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have diverse habitats,\u201d he said, \u201cyou have diverse wildlife species.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dwindling turkey population also threatens the very thing that got Chamberlain into the field\u2014turkey hunting, a popular form of outdoor recreation. While Georgia hunters harvested over 40,000 birds in 2005, by 2023 that total was down to 11,909, reflecting the declining populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money hunters spend to purchase licenses and other equipment is a huge part of what runs the conservation engine in North America,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout that funding, many conservation efforts can be limited and wildlife populations negatively impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chamberlain is trying to determine more precise population numbers so he can arm agencies and conservation groups with better data. These numbers have never existed because it\u2019s so hard to find and count the birds. He\u2019s is recording turkey calls in states across the Southeast and beyond\u2014from Georgia and South Carolina to Texas and Nebraska\u2014using machine learning tools to develop more reliable and comprehensive data.<\/p>\n

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A fine line between work and play<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Chamberlain has a hard time separating business from pleasure when it comes to hunting and research, which undeniably benefits his scholarly work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s only so much you can learn about an animal by putting a transmitter on it and looking at data,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting out there and being in their environment lets you see things with your own eyes that you\u2019re not going to find in the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers a trip in Mississippi 20 years ago when he was hunting a specific bird by staking out its roost before dawn. Hunters will listen for a turkey\u2019s sunrise gobbling so they can find the tree it slept in and lure it through their own calls.<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t get close enough, so he kept going back to the roost each day. As he did this, however, he started to observe behavioral changes that made him question whether he was even hunting the same bird.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery hunter in the world thought turkeys sleep in the same tree every night,\u201d Chamberlain said.<\/p>\n

He started interrogating that assumption, however, and ended up integrating roosting data into all his future studies. He\u2019s obtained tens of thousands of roost locations for both male and female turkeys and published the most comprehensive dataset ever collected on roosting behavior<\/a>. Through this work, Chamberlain found that birds will routinely switch roosts, use roosts other birds have used, and sleep in the same roosts across generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey roosts hold huge ecological importance because they can tell us a lot about what characteristics of a landscape a turkey needs,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can predict where these places are, we can focus conservation efforts on the locations that will best support a healthy turkey population.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section css=”.vc_custom_1567710408463{background-color: #e4ddc7 !important;}” el_class=”fw-polygon”][vc_row equal_height=”yes” bg_type=”bg_color”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1567710326062{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}” el_class=”polygon-wrapper”][vc_raw_html css=”.vc_custom_1731349117637{background-image: url(https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/11\/chamberlain-with-turkey-feather.jpg?id=70508) !important;}” el_class=”polygon”]JTNDJTIxLS1sZWF2ZSUyMHRoaXMlMjBlbXB0eS0tJTNF[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ el_class=”polygon-content”][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”testimonial”]\u201cI want to collect the most rigorous scientific information about turkeys and the threats they face so I can be a real steward for the birds and the landscapes they inhabit.”[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”credit”]<\/p>\n

\u2013 Michael Chamberlain, National Wild Turkey Federation Distinguished Professor, Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources<\/p>\n

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The call of the Wild Turkey Doc<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While it\u2019s harder to hear a turkey these days, it\u2019s easy to find Chamberlain spreading the word about them, driving conversations around conservation and management.<\/p>\n

He launched an online project called \u201cThe Wild Turkey Lab\u201d to act as a one-stop shop for turkey science, where people can access engaging, digestible information about wild turkeys and their habitats. He\u2019s active across social media platforms and popular podcasts, has conducted several webinars, seminars, and media events, and has met with state agencies about how they can improve their regulations to support a more sustainable turkey population.<\/p>\n

Chamberlain\u2019s outreach efforts have resulted in numerous states making changes in how they manage turkeys. In Georgia, the state Department of Natural Resources used his work to justify regulatory changes, which moved back the opening of wild turkey season and reduced the number of birds a hunter can harvest. The changes help ensure sustainable wild turkey populations.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he earned the Research Communications Award at UGA\u2019s annual Research Awards for his impactful outreach and communications efforts.<\/p>\n

Chamberlain wants to empower people to put science into practice, and he\u2019s realized some of the most influential groups aren\u2019t affiliated with research institutions. In many states, he points out, over 90% of turkey habitats are on private land, so reaching landowners is a critical piece of any conservation effort. When he shares GPS data from a turkey\u2019s movement on social media, he sees \u201clightbulbs go off\u201d when landowners realize they could better manage their property through prescribed burning or harvesting timber so turkeys aren\u2019t inhibited by overgrowth or thick trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to bring research to the real world instead of keeping it in academic circles,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most important people to reach are the stakeholders, hunters, and landowners who are interested in turkeys and other wildlife so they can actually do something with the science.\u201d<\/p>\n

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LISTEN:<\/strong> Mike Chamberlain appears on the the\u00a0Garden & Gun\u00a0<\/i>podcast, ‘The Wild South’.<\/h3>\n

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”text-container first-paragraph”] Mike Chamberlain grew up hunting turkey in Virginia. Wandering the woods, he was accustomed to hearing their distinct gobble. As years passed, though, he heard fewer birds cry out. At the time, he wasn\u2019t certain why. But when the opportunity came to study wild turkeys for his doctoral research, those days … <\/p>\n

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