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Show t ' 1 ' ' ij v- " - I ; , v ' - ? v. "-v . " . iCUi x iZi A Southern Utah Wild Turkey Watch For Wild Turkeys In Southern Utah Not many Ulahns know about southern Utah's wild turkeys. Even fewer people have seen these secretive secre-tive birds, which prefer wilderness : areas. The pondcrosa and oak mountains moun-tains of southern Utah offer good habitat for wild turkey, first intro- duced into the state 29 years ago. Wild turkey gobblers in the mountains of southern Utah arc beginning be-ginning to disperse to traditional breeding areas, where they will gather harems of up to six females. Breeding will take place prior to the spring turkey hunt. Female turkeys will choose nesting areas in wet mountain meadows the latter part of : May. ; Sixteen turkeys were first trans- 1 planted in 1952 in the LaSal r Mountains from Colorado. Turkeys were transplanted into several counties in southern Utah from Colorado and Arizona during the next few years. Turkey populations flourished. During February 1989, 20 turkeys of the Rio Grande variety from Texas were released along the Paria River near the town of Trip. These birds will use the river bottoms bot-toms of valleys. It is hoped that with this new turkey, even greater numbers of turkeys will be able to live in Utah. Turkey hunting first began in Utah in 1963. |