Six weeks before the start of spring gobbler season, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is continuing the state's largest wild turkey research initiative. The project monitors reproduction, harvests and disease management.
In four wildlife management units, including 2D northeast of Pittsburgh, biologists are marking turkeys with leg bands and transmitters. The public is asked to help with the first phase by contacting the Game Commission with the location of turkey flocks, date of sighting and whether the land is public, private or unknown.
Twenty-five GPS transmitters will be put on 25 hens in each of the WMUS being studied. The birds will be live-trapped and released on site, and banded for population and research purposes only. Location data will not be shared with Game Commission law enforcement.
