Wild Turkey Restoration in Nebraska

Native populations of the Wild Turkey were extirpated from Nebraska by about 1915, and an initial 3-year effort to stock turkeys along the Missouri River was discontinued in 1931 “owing to the fact that it is extremely difficult to obtain wild birds for stocking.”

This document from the Nebraska Department of Wildlife and Parks’ Wildlife Species Guide describes the modern history of Wild Turkey restoration in Nebraska, which began in 1959 with the release of Merriam’s turkeys trapped in South Dakota and Wyoming.

The following maps illustrate the distribution of release sites of various subspecies and the present-day range of the Wild Turkey in Nebraska: