Photo courtesy of John J. Woods.

To hear Keith Guyse tell it, Alabama has more wild turkeys than Carter had pills.

That dying expression was born of the observation that it was practically impossible to count the number of tiny tablets contained in a bottle of Carter’s Little Liver Pills. Depression-era labels proclaimed that they combated “headaches, biliousness, torpid liver, constipation and indigestion” -- or at least did, until federal drug gurus pointed out that the supposed hepatic remedy had no effect whatsoever on one’s liver, after which bottles of the patent medicine (also touted for “keen eye, clean tongue, clear complexion and perfect health”) were relabeled post-debunking; today, they’re marketed as a laxative under the name “Carter’s Little Pills.” The catchphrase, however, hasn’t been forgotten.

The point is that roughly half a million turkeys run loose in the Heart of Dixie, inducing headaches, biliousness, torpid livers, constipation, indigestion and general fatigue among those who dare chase them. Only two states have more birds.

Guyse, an assistant chief with the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, admits that determining an exact turkey head count isn’t possible, particularly since the wary birds won’t stand still. But he’s more confident than ever that the DWFF has settled on a more sensible formula of estimating the size of Alabama’s flock.

“Steven Barnett has come up with a great way to assess the turkey population,” Guyse said. “We’ve always put the number at around 400,000. But Steven took another look at things and spoke with conservation officers to put together a chart of the available habitat per zone. By his count -- and I believe he’s right -- we have more birds than we thought.” Barnett, who is a DWFF wildlife biologist in Daphne, insists that the good old days of turkey hunting are today. Alabama’s turkey population is second only to numbers of birds to Missouri’s 900,000 and the 600,000 in Texas. Accordingly, the annual harvest in the Cotton State has soared to about 60,000, also one of the highest reported in the nation.

“To better understand factors that influence wild turkey reproduction and survival, as well as the sustainability of current harvest levels, the Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries is partnering with the Alabama Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Auburn University and the Alabama chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation to employ scientific methods to determine survival of wild turkeys into the fall population,” Barnett explained.

“The objective is to develop a method that is suitable in providing a survival index in three geographic regions of Alabama,” he continued. “By gleaning the results of this pilot study and developing a gobbler population harvest index, we will be better equipped to make biologically sound and responsible decisions regarding seasons and bag limits.” (Continued)

Barnett’s conclusions indicate that there should be no shortage of gobbling turkeys this spring, though the same might not hold true for 2009 -- due to last summer’s severe drought, the effects of which won’t be noticeable until then. And make no mistake: It was a long and very dry summer here. According to the U.S. drought monitor, Alabama was among the hardest hit in the Southeast, with most of the state still at the “exceptional” drought level as late as mid-September.

WEATHER
“Whenever you get hot, dry weather in the summer, it’ll hit the quail and turkey populations really hard, especially the turkeys,” said Guyse. “Drought conditions lead to a decline in bugs, which the young poults need to eat in order to survive. A drought also leads to poor seed production and less or stunted cover.”

Cover is important in the first couple of weeks of a poult’s life, because the hatchlings cannot fly. Until they can, they’re walking bull’s eyes for a host of predators.

So why won’t the drought affect next spring’s turkeys?