Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

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Southern Sportsman
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Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by Southern Sportsman »

Dr. Michael Chamberlain - Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management at UGA - was the guest on this week’s episode of the MeatEater podcast. I’m a big fan of most MeatEater stuff, but this one is one of the best, particularly concerning turkeys. Dr. Chamberlain specializes in turkeys, and his knowledge and info is fascinating. This is a great listen. Especially discussions about horned owls snatching gobblers out of trees, the correlation between gobbling and pressure, and research about social hierarchies, breeding, and season dates. Well worth your time.

You can start at the 23 minute mark for the substantive discussions. 1:18 mark for the social hierarchy/breeding stuff.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t ... 0469953687
I go stubbornly into error by myself, and reach my own fallacious conclusions using my own faulty data. ~Tom Kelly
Dtrkyman
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by Dtrkyman »

Great listen, I could pic that dude's brain for hours!!!

Would love to hear his advice on habitat improvements!
PharmHunter
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by PharmHunter »

Every single person who turkey hunts needs to listen to this podcast, and it would be good to follow Mike's work he posts on Social Media regularly.
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SwampDrummin
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by SwampDrummin »

The great horned owl nesting pair kill count was wild, both of turkeys and non-game species.
crow
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by crow »

Heard this yesterday,
good info and well worth your time to listen.
Last edited by crow on April 8th, 2020, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by deltastrutter »

Great podcast! Had to listen to it twice to fully absorb all the information he provided.
timbrhuntr
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by timbrhuntr »

Just saw this yesterday and I agree a very good listen to a biologist that actually I can relate to his info. I found the turkey leks info and killing of the boss gobbler and screwing up the mating for the season very interesting. Also the part about most hunters using the same strategy all season but the turkeys adjusting to these tactics.
Dtrkyman
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by Dtrkyman »

I keep listening to it while I am scouting birds this week, great imformation, need to create an instagram account to follow him!
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by 935 »

Southern Sportsman, Thank you so much for posting this. I believe it's the most interesting thing I've ever listened to.
Thank you Lord for creating these wonderful birds and allowing us to chase after them.
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BobT
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by BobT »

Great listen, thanks for posting! I never even thought about the Great Horned Owl as a turkey predator.
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by milkman »

Dtrkyman wrote:I keep listening to it while I am scouting birds this week, great imformation, need to create an instagram account to follow him!
He is on Instagram wildturkeydoc

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Dtrkyman
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

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Yes milkman, but I am not!

Thanks
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by GLS »

I listened today and he debunks "aging" a turkey by spur length and beard. What I found fascinating was his discussion about when the dominant bird is killed, the hen is immediately receptive to the next in line. His ideas of why we have a decline in the SE makes sense. I've participated in one of his SC studies by carrying a gps as he discussed. Lots of great info based upon electronic means including gobbling activity. He shows a correlation between rising/falling barometer and gobbling activity. Gil
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by Southern Sportsman »

GLS wrote: April 19th, 2020, 9:33 pm What I found fascinating was his discussion about when the dominant bird is killed, the hen is immediately receptive to the next in line. His ideas of why we have a decline in the SE makes sense.
For those who haven't listened, the hen chooses the gobbler with which she intends to breed through sexual selection. It’s not an instant decision and it’s not based on which gobbler happens to be standing there when she decides its time to breed. Chamberlain posits that when you kill a “dominant” gobbler that hens have selected, the hen doesn’t just go to the next gobbler and breed. The gobblers have to re-establish who’s the “dominant” male, and the sexual selection process starts over for hens. It throws a wrench in the breeding cycle had has far more impact that anyone use to think.

When you think about how turkey hunting has changed over the last 15 years, and consider that the dominant gobbler is probably the most likely to charge a decoy to defend his status, it all makes a lot of sense to me.
I go stubbornly into error by myself, and reach my own fallacious conclusions using my own faulty data. ~Tom Kelly
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GLS
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by GLS »

That's correct. The hen ISN"T immediately receptive to the successor dominant bird. I misspoke and thanks for the correction.
His observations and statistics on how many eggs produce adult birds are disheartening and run against former observations and statistics from two decades ago. Role of predation against the eggs and poults has changed over the past decades as well for the worse. For instance, the common rat snake is hell on turkey eggs, returning to the nest daily for recently laid eggs. He estimates egg and poult losses are about 40% due to snake activity. As for those states with healthier numbers than the SE which were late in the turkey spring hunting game compared to the SE (Wisconsin for one), just wait. Things will eventually decline if hunting spring gobblers are hunted too early in the breeding season as is suspected is being done in the SE. His observations are controversial with some, but he isn't influenced by the politics of game management as sometimes happens with state employees. He has a thick skin and publishes Turkey Tuesday weekly on twitter, FB and Instagram. @wildturkeydoc on Twitter.

Gil
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by timbrhuntr »

I know the guy is an expert and all but I wondered about the dominant gobbler thing when I read it.I found it very interesting and started me thinking not always a good thing. I see several different groups of birds in areas I hunt. One or two toms with several hens. They roost together and hang around together. So is each one of these groups with a dominant tom . I can see that in some groups there is obviously a dominat bird that seems to suppress the others but what about the flock that I see that has 2 or 3 toms in it and I have seen all the toms breed different hens out in the same field ! :dontknow:
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Sir-diealot
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by Sir-diealot »

Does anyone know if it can be printed out anywhere? I have a friend that is a Mennonite so things like podcasts are not something he can do so I would like to print it out for him to read. Thanks.
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

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timbrhuntr wrote: April 20th, 2020, 9:25 pm I know the guy is an expert and all but I wondered about the dominant gobbler thing when I read it.I found it very interesting and started me thinking not always a good thing. I see several different groups of birds in areas I hunt. One or two toms with several hens. They roost together and hang around together. So is each one of these groups with a dominant tom . I can see that in some groups there is obviously a dominat bird that seems to suppress the others but what about the flock that I see that has 2 or 3 toms in it and I have seen all the toms breed different hens out in the same field ! :dontknow:
He touched on it a little. Bands of 2-3 gobblers that always run together are almost always brothers. Now i’m speculating: I suspect dominant status is sometimes a bit more fluid in those groups. They’ve been pecking at each other since they hatched so they likely tolerate each other a little more. And if they’re pretty equal, different hens may choose different males. Versus a flock with a true dominant that picks up a satellite gobbler hanging around and getting spur kicked every time he oversteps.
I go stubbornly into error by myself, and reach my own fallacious conclusions using my own faulty data. ~Tom Kelly
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Re: Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater podcast

Post by tr3y0248 »

He was also interviewed on 2 episodes of Jay Scott outdoors podcast and Primos Speak the language podcast this week. All worthy and informative listens.
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