Turkey Talk

Try out some great Wild Turkey Recipes.

During the holidays , turkey tends to be a feasting favorite, but with only a couple hundred turkey tags available in Nevada in any given year, the chance to taste the wild variety may be rare.

Wild turkeys tend to be smaller than the domestic variety. Instead of being grain fed, wild turkeys must fend for themselves when it comes to their meals, plus they must be quick on their feet to escape predators.

The wild turkey is one of the nation's most popular game birds, but it has been a successful species in Nevada only since the mid-1980s when the Rio Grande sub species was introduced to the state.

Nevada habitats are not the most natural for wild turkeys. In fact, biologists agree that Nevada's lack of trees and mast crops (trees with nuts, like the oak tree and acorns) makes for poor turkey habitat. But that has not stopped the introduced Rio Grande species from doing well in the state.

Nevada’s Rio Grande turkey populations stretch from Elko in the north and Mason Valley in the west to Overton in the southern portion of Nevada.

“We’ve released birds virtually in all of the agricultural areas in Nevada where we think they can survive. We’re experimenting in southeastern Nevada in the pinion juniper forests right along the Utah border to see if we can get birds to live along public lands in the pinion juniper forests, ” said NDOW wildlife biologist San Stiver.