Hannah Pryor is having an adventure of a lifetime.
Hannah Pryor is having an adventure of a lifetime. A native of Roxbury, Connecticut, Pryor is a Senior at Paul Smith’s College and will graduate in 2025 with a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management. During the summer, Pryor worked in Lindsborg, Kansas as part of a research team studying the declining population of turkeys in the area.
The road to Kansas was a long one—literally. Pryor drove 22 hours from Connecticut to Kansas with her dad so she could have her own car while she was there. Pryor said she took advice from Val Titus, her advisor at Paul Smith’s, to allow herself time to travel and to see what there is to see in places that may not be the most comfortable.
Turkeys were reintroduced to Kansas in the 1980s and the population rose until 2010, but since then the population has fallen so much that turkey hunting was not allowed in Kansas last fall. The purpose of the project is to understand why it is declining, and managing it in the future. There are five PhD students in the project. Caroline Skidmore, a doctoral student from Kansas State University (who is sponsoring the project) is the PhD student for the area that Pryor is working in.
Predator v. Turkey
They’ve set up trail cameras to look for predators, such as badgers, possums, etc. who are known to eat the eggs of turkeys. They are determining resource selection, such as what vegetation they hang out in, and like to forage in by taking bug surveys, vegetation clippings, and fecal samples.
“The women carried not guns, but an antenna shaped like an H and connected to a handheld radio that beeped every second. It picked up signals from a transmitter carried as a tiny backpack by a turkey hen, with straps snug around her bird shoulders but not keeping her from flight. The beep volume told Pryor and Skidmore whether they were hot or cold on her trail.”
—Scott Bortz, Marion County (KS) News-Record
In addition to the antenna, the researchers use a cover board—a large checkerboard sign with eight checkers; one person holds it up in a field, and from 10m, another reads the board to see how much board is covered with vegetation, thereby checking the visibility and coverage of vegetation. They use a Daubenmire Frame, as well—a PVC square 1m x 1m that lays flat on the ground, to determine the percentage in the square that is bare, grass, litter, etc.
While Pryor was at Nonnewaug High School, in Woodbury, Connecticut, she learned about career paths in natural resources, veterinarian studies, environmental studies, etc. She’s always loved the field of environmental studies, and the outdoors, growing up hunting and fishing with her dad. A teacher at her high school suggested that Paul Smith’s College might be the place for her to get her start.
“I wanted to go to college not too far from home, but far enough, and Paul Smith’s College is a comfortable four hours away.” Coincidentally, her boyfriend, Quinn Turner (whom she met in high school) made the same decision, independently, and is a Forestry major at Paul Smith’s. “The experience at Paul Smith’s has been unbelievably amazing; so much fun; and I’ve learned so much,” Pryor says.
I’m a Huge Bird Person!
Pryor says she’s learned a lot about wildlife biology, and being outside in the Adirondacks is the perfect place to study. “I’ve learned about the career opportunities in becoming a researcher, or taking the “educator route,” Pryor explains.
She’s had summer jobs over the years that enhanced her educational experience. Her first position for at the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation, in Saranac Lake, conducting educational programs for kids in loon monitoring. “Birds have inspired me to continue improving my artistic skills, and to even begin entering duck stamp contests, including the Federal Duck Stamp Contest. I fell in love with birds—I’m a ‘huge bird person’!”
In her Sophomore year, she worked at Connecticut’s Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy, in Litchfield, “I worked with captive waterfowl as an educational tool to supplement the wildlife population and learning about species from all over the world.
During the winter, Pryor can be found at Bloomingdale Bog. “It’s best place to see winter birds, and the trail from Saranac Lake to Ochiota has many Canada Jays—they’re used to people, and a lot of fun. And, of course, watching the winter birds at the bird feeders at Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center.”
Upon her return to Paul Smith’s College for the Fall 2024 semester, Pryor will become the president of Paul Smith’s College chapter of The Wildlife Society. “My goals as president is to increase student involvement, create more connections to jobs, provide graduate assistant opportunities, experience practice field techniques, and have members do presentations of their summer jobs, more speakers, trips, and attending the TWS conference in Baltimore to compete in a quiz bowl. I’ve been a member since I was a freshman, and I’ve met people, and we do cool things!” Pryor says.
Photos:
Opposite: Occasionally, Pryor would go out and help another crew working on a mourning dove research project, and sometimes other birds (such as this cardinal) would enter the traps, where they were quickly released.
1: Pryor is seen holding up the cover board for Skidmore to read from 10m away to evaluate the vegetation density in that area.
2: Retrieving a transmitter that was found from a dead turkey; these hens were trapped in April and had transmitters and leg bands placed for identification later in the season.
3: Freshly hatched turkey poults in their nest structure found in a wheat field.
4: On this particular morning, the task was to track and locate a hen that had hatched her poults two days before; they found the poults and snagged a photo opportunity.