HARRISBURG (TNS) — To fuel “the largest turkey project” ever conducted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the agency is asking the public to report any turkey flocks they see between now and March 15.

Commission staff will be monitoring reports made online to the Wild Turkey Sighting Survey for potential sites to trap turkeys.

According to the commission, turkeys trapped for the project will not be removed from the site. They will be leg-banded and released on site.

In four wildlife management units a sampling also will be outfitted with GPS transmitters that the commission will monitor over time.

New this year, commission trapping crews will put transmitters on 100 hens — 25 each in WMUs 2D in western Pennsylvania, 3D in northeastern Pennsylvania, 4D in central Pennsylvania and 5C in southeastern Pennsylvania.

The four study areas have different landscapes, turkey population densities and spring hunter and harvest densities.

The large-scale project also will be looking at disease prevalence in the birds. Commission crews will collect various samples – blood, tracheal, feces and skin — from hens that receive backpack-style transmitters at the time of capture.

The studies are being done in partnership with Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wildlife Futures Program.

Trapping turkeys in winter is part of ongoing population monitoring as well as the launch of a large-scale hen study.

Just as in the past two winters, the commission also will put leg bands on male turkeys statewide. Hunters who harvest one of those turkeys, or people who find one dead, are asked to report the band number by either calling the toll-free number or emailing the email address on the band.

“That gives us information on annual survival rates and annual spring harvest rates for our population model,” said Mary Jo Casalena, commission’s turkey biologist.

The population and movement portion of the project is looking at how landscape and weather impact hen nest rates, nest success, poult survival, predation, habitat use and movement. The disease portion is examining how disease prevalence varies by landscape and impacts things like the survival and nesting rates of hens of different ages.

Approximately 100 additional transmitters will be deployed each winter through 2025, so that in the end – with transmitters from hens that die being recovered and re-deployed – the commission expects to be monitoring more than 400 transmitter-equipped hens.

Researchers from Penn State and the Wildlife Futures Program will interpret the data collected. Biologists from Maryland and possibly another state wildlife agency will join the project next year.

“It’s going to be the largest turkey project we’ve ever conducted, with the hope of answering many questions regarding current hen population dynamics,” Casalena said.

More than 3,800 people, on average, submit Wild Turkey Sighting Survey reports each summer. That information plays a key role in tracking annual turkey reproduction across the state, Casalena said.

She’s hoping the public will be as active in relaying information on the location of winter turkey flocks.

“The public has been so helpful in years past,” Casalena said. “So, we figured we’d expand on that and ask for help locating winter flocks statewide.”