genetic purity?

[adam]

..................................

[GSP]

When they started the release program in Morgan county and surrounding counties. They attempted to buy the domestic flocks from farmers that had free roaming birds. There is probably some isolated cross-breeding. I don't think it's enough to worry about. You don't see many domestic turkeys anymore. Coyotes will help that problem too.

[schuyler olt]

The DNA of wild turkeys and domestic turkeys is nearly identical, to the extent that crossbreds are not sterile. Piebald, color phase and albinos are not a result of crossbreeding. Those variants generally come out of normally colored and patterned wild birds. Also, the turkeys reintroduced were brought in from several different states, ranging from Missouri to Louisiana, so the wild turkeys here draw from a diverse gene pool. The early stockings were done in fairly remote areas, such as the Burnheim Forest, the Jefferson Memorial Forest (later), the LBL and the DBNF, which would obviously reduce the amount of domestic intercourse.[:D][}:)]
Given the high reproductive rate of turkeys, it would also suggest that any domestic genes would be pretty quickly diluted.
Folks have raised some concern about inbreeding among wild turkeys, perhaps fearing turkeys that play "Duelling Banjos" instead of gobbling. When George Wright did his mortality study with the collared birds, though, one of the sidelights was that young birds range for miles to establish their territories. Very few of the jakes you saw on your place this spring will be longbeards there the next year, unless there are currently no longbeards to compete with. As a result, flocks are constantly intermixing genetics. We're seeing more and more hybrids, though, in some of the areas where subspecies, such as Easterns and Rios, are fairly nearby.

[mossyhorns]

Funny thing about the LBL birds, Sky. The original flock was slow to reproduce. In the early 80's they brought in some new birds (Missouri, I believe) and the population exploded overnight.

[schuyler olt]

That is odd. I think the first ones were Louisiana birds. Must have been missing the hot sauce![}:)] Any thoughts on why that was?

[Valley Station]

The LBL turkey looked like a different subspecies of turkey. It had a larger fan, longer tail feather and a lot more orangish bronz/copper color in their breast feathers. Kind of hated to see them go, they were a magnificent bird.[V]
However, when George stocked them Missouri birds in LBL, that flock really "took off".[:D]
I think we got some "bad seed", "skinny, tight lipped, non-gobblin', non-scratchin'turkeys" from Mississippi.George put some Mississippi birds in Breckinridge county, they didn't do well at all.Extremely slow flock growth.[xx(][V][B)]
Fact is, George went back 10-12 years later and restocked with Missouri and Iowa turkeys and that flock really exploded![^]

[schuyler olt]

Adam,
Sounds plausible to me. That would be George's luck to go all the way to Mississippi, do all that work, and bring back a bunch of gobblers that were light in their spurs![:o)]

[mossyhorns]

"Light in the spurs" -- Good one, Sky!

Those Missouri birds are different in my book. The ones I hunt act differently from any birds I've ever seen or hunted -- at least the ones that are still in Missouri, that is.

[CPA Hunter]

Valley, Mississippi birds are gobbling up a storm now a days with the no jake rule. I would have agreed with you a few years back, but they are light in weight, but some get over 20.