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Exotic Meat Market breeds the Osceola Wild Turkey
in California. The original breeding stock came from Mr. Nathan Webb from
Florida.
The Osceola wild turkey subspecies is smaller and
darker than the highly familiar Eastern Wild Turkey. On average, males usually
weigh between 15 to 20 pounds, and females weigh eight to 12 pounds.
Males have iridescent green and red hues on their
feathers; they are not as bronze as the eastern subspecies. Females have a dull
feather finish.
Osceola Wild Turkey can also be distinguished from
Eastern Wild Turkey by their dark brown tail feather tips, wing bars, and more
black than white primary feathers.
The Osceola turkey typically has a shorter beard
than the eastern wild turkey but has very long spurs. The caruncles (wattles)
on gobbler heads are red colored throughout the year but may also contain
intense shades of blue and white during the breeding season. Females usually
have bluish-gray heads and typically do not have a beard, although bearded hens
are not unheard of.
The Osceola breeding season runs from January to
May in southern Florida. Males start gobbling and strutting for females at the
beginning of the breeding season. The Osceola is known to be a loud gobbler.
Osceola's may interbreed with eastern turkeys where
their ranges overlap. Hens scratch a depression into the ground to build their
nest in March or April and lay nine to 11 eggs. After 25 to 26 days of
incubation, the poults hatch and immediately follow the hen. After two weeks of
feeding themselves and building their flight muscles, they can roost safely off
the ground.
Poults transition to their adult diet of seeds,
fruits, leaves, acorns, insects, and small reptiles as the summer turns into
fall. Though turkeys spend their day foraging on the ground for these foods,
they usually fly up into open-limbed mature trees to roost for the night. This
keeps them safe from ground predators, which include bobcats, foxes, coyotes,
and snakes.
As mentioned, the Osceola turkey has one of the
most limited ranges of all the turkey subspecies, occurring only on the Florida
peninsula. The eastern turkey overlaps some of this range on the Florida
panhandle and the Florida-Georgia line.
Generally, turkeys require a few different habitat
types throughout the changing seasons to thrive. The nesting cover consists of
vegetation about three feet in height. In Florida, this includes saw palmetto,
old fields, pastures, and under fallen trees. These areas provide cover for the
hen as she incubates her eggs. After the poults have hatched, hens seek out
shorter vegetation like grassy openings and short hayfields with ample insects
for forage and where the hen can spot approaching predators. Preferred roost
trees for adults include cypress or pine trees with open limbs near water
sources. Fall and winter habitat includes hardwood hammocks, bottomland
hardwoods, wooded swamps, cypress woods, and mixed pine-hardwood habitats.
Estimates place the Osceola turkey population at
approximately 100,000 individuals in Florida. However, it is difficult to get
an accurate estimate due to the secretive nature of the species and the dense
vegetation where they reside. During the initial decline of the turkey in our
country, Florida’s inaccessible swamplands provided refuge for the species
while many other states struggled to keep turkey populations viable. However,
the Osceola was nevertheless eliminated from portions of the Everglades in the
1900s due to extensive timber harvests and hunting pressure, according to the
National Park Service (NPS).
“Wild Turkey and six other upland species
disappeared shortly after a dramatic reduction in the area of the Atlantic rock
ridge pinelands and extensive logging in the region,” said NPS. “Hunting almost
certainly contributed to the turkey’s disappearance because of its
establishment as a popular game bird.”
Floridians tried to restore the wild turkey
population in the state’s southern end in both the 1940s and 70s. “A
cooperative effort to restore Wild Turkey to Everglades National Park was
organized in the fall of 1999 because in addition to hunting now being illegal,
a natural fire regime was being restored, and the forests had recovered from
logging,” said NPS. In January 2000, 29 turkeys (22 females and seven males)
were captured in central southern Florida and released in the Everglades.
Since then, efforts to reintroduce the Osceola
into the National Park have had mixed results. Seventy percent of the 29
turkeys died within a year of the release, and the remaining population was
very male-heavy. In 2006, 31 more turkeys were released in the park, and while
that effort was more successful than the 2000 turkey release, the population is
still declining within the Everglades. “Long-term success of the reintroduction
will ultimately be determined by the development of a viable, self-sustaining
population,” said NPS.
In 1985, the Florida Legislature passed the
Florida Wild Turkey Stamp Act, which required all turkey hunters to buy a
permit or license. Revenues helped support wild turkey research and
conservation efforts. In Florida, brood considerations and the availability of
roosting trees can often be the most limiting factors in determining habitat,
though increased urbanization is also responsible for habitat destruction.
Given their limited range, unique coloration, and small population size,
unregulated hunting pressure could quickly affect the persistence of the
subspecies.
Fortunately, Florida manages hunting pressure on
these turkeys well. Florida has spring (March to April) and fall
(zone-dependent season dates) turkey seasons. There is a two-turkey daily bag
and season limit on gobblers and bearded turkeys for both spring and fall
seasons. The exception is in Holmes County, where the daily bag and season
limit is one gobbler or bearded turkey in spring. Always check the most recent
Florida hunting regulations for updated rules.
While you can apply for special hunts and limited
entry/quota hunts, there are also many public hunting areas where you can
pursue turkeys with only an over-the-counter license. The Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission maintains a list of wildlife management areas
where you can find the Osceola subspecies, as well as information to help you
get started.
After a successful turkey hunt, hunters must
report their harvest to the Florida Wildlife Commission within 24 hours and
prior to the final processing of the turkey. It must also be reported before
“any parts of it transferred to another party including meat processors and
taxidermists, or the wild turkey the state,” according to Florida’s
e-regulations. Turkey harvests can be reported online, via phone, or through
the Fish/Hunt Florida app. Additionally, before a wild turkey is dismembered
and divided between individuals at a hunting camp, each part of the turkey must
be labeled with the name, address, FWC customer number, date of harvest, and harvest
location.
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