Native Delaware: Turkey trackers UD researcher works to ensure
Delaware's wild turkey population proliferates 3:25 p.m., Dec.
12, 2012--In colonial times, the Eastern wild turkey was
abundant in Delaware. But by the late 1800s, wild turkeys were
gone, eradicated by over-zealous market hunters and habitat
destruction. Usually, that’s the end of the story for a species.
Sensor on a chip Sometimes, however, species can be re-
introduced to their original habitats. Such has been the case
with the Eastern wild turkey, one of Delaware’s greatest
conservation success stories, says Matt DiBona, a wildlife
biologist with the Division of Fish and Wildlife in the state’s
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
(DNREC). In 1984, 34 Eastern wild turkeys from Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and Vermont were given new homes in the woodlands of
Sussex. In the 1990s, 100 wild turkeys from New York were
released; in 2002 they were joined by another 33 birds from
South Carolina and Virginia. Throughout this period, tu