If it weren't for the NWTF we wouldn't have turkeys like we have them now in my own home state!!Support those who support you and the sport you enjoy...Read this..


Transplanted Gould's Thrive In Arizona
When deer hunters reported both hearing and seeing wild turkeys in southeast Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, Bobby Maddrey, a National Wild Turkey Federation biologist, took it as a good sign that the Gould's wild turkeys transferred there would endure.

The NWTF, in a partnership with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) and the Republic of Mexico, trapped, transferred and released 39 Gould's subspecies of wild turkey from Mexico to southeast Arizona in April 2003, as part of the Go for the Gould's project. On 14 of the birds, they attached radio transmitters to track their movements. Seven transmitters are still sending a signal.

"Breeding activity has been observed, and several broods of wild turkeys have been seen in the area," Maddrey said. "This shows that the Gould's wild turkey should be able to survive and flourish in the dry habitat of southern Arizona."

According to Maddrey, a 50 percent survival rate is an excellent sign that the trap and transfer of Mexican birds to the United States will successfully repopulate the Gould's turkey to some of its former habitat.

Gilbert Gonzales, an AGFD game warden for the Chiricahua Mountains, has reported seeing multiple gobblers and hens, including a hen with a poult, chasing grasshoppers in a meadow.

"The turkeys seem to be doing very well in the mountain canyons of the Chiricahuas," Gonzales said. "I have seen turkeys in a lot of different areas throughout my unit."

The partnership among the two governments and the NWTF will continue in 2004 with additional transfers of Gould's wild turkeys from Mexico to Arizona.

NWTF trap and transfer teams plan to capture 70 birds in the Sierra Madrea Mountains with help from Wingshooter's Lodge and a Mexican conservation organization, the Organizacion Vida Silvestre A.C. Afterward, biologists will quarantine the birds to ensure they are disease free and then transfer them to Arizona to be released into their new home