Connect a wild turkey to salmon? Before either shows up on the Thanksgiving table?
Of course, the natural world is all about connections, even those of the above black bear, caught on a trail cam in northwest Oregon.
Let me explain.
I shot a young turkey hen recently – yes, legally.
Oregon’s turkey-hunting regulations are among the nation’s most liberal, allowing up to three toms in the spring and another two of either sex in the fall; even more if, as we do, you hunt on private land in most of the Willamette Valley.
After boning the tender bird (breasts, wings, legs, and thighs), I took the carcass crabbing with son Bill Jr. in the Columbia River estuary.
Yes, crabbing has been excellent using all kinds of bait, so it wasn’t a case of getting our limits.
Bill launched five pots, four filled with salmon heads and bones, and one with my turkey skeleton.
Of our 60-crab limit (in a single pull, by the way), 14 were in the Turkey pot.
Then, as we finished and he discarded the little that was left, gulls squabbled loudly over what floated away on the tide.
But that turkey still wasn’t finished with its full-circle, ashes to ashes, dust to dust trip.
I took the crabs home, cleaned and picked them, and vacuum-packed the succulent flesh into six neat bags, one of which will return to the ranch where the turkey began its contribution to the food chain.
And it’s actually remotely possible that a portion of that turkey, rather than ending as a metaphor to our hosts, may even physically return to the diets of its brethren.
After all, doesn’t the, umm, “bear sh.. in the woods?”
For several decades, scientists have studied the intricate system of nitrogen isotopes found naturally in the bodies of flora and fauna (that’s you and me) and now know they can be identified and categorized in a way similar to that of DNA. However, it’s not the individual isotope but the way they’re structured that makes each sequence unique.
These isotopes are in nature’s fertilizer, which makes nitrogen so critical to growth and existence.
And yes, they’re carried in both feces and urine.
Sometime in the 1980s or 90s, researchers in Alaska managed to isolate the presence of isotopes from salmon in conifer trees – spruce, fir, etc.
…Even those far from the nearest spawning streams.
Scientists went further and established links between “marine-derived” nitrogen in tree rings and the historical abundance of salmon runs; thanks to bears, wolves, eagles, otters and others carrying salmon parts/nutrients into the forest.
Ta-DA!!! Critters eat, pee and defecate the remains of their catches somewhere over tree drip lines on the forest floor. Rain and gravity carry the isotopes to the roots, etc., etc.
Meanwhile, back at our hunting venue…
Our host’s septic drain field is obviously a Woodstock of nitrogen cousins.
But although the lady of the house probably doesn’t copy a bear’s activity when she can simply go back to the house, her husband often hikes on his property and is far more likely to at least answer the no. 1 call in the privacy of the forest.
Thus, the (very) “remote” chance that, after feasting on a crab cake or two, he’ll go for an after-dinner stroll and sprinkle a few “signature” nitrogen isotopes across a drip line somewhere. We also donate salmon to the family’s well-being, which might also show up in their trees.
And I’d love to be a fly on the wall someday when a forensic scientist scratches his head after discovering albacore tuna isotopes in Willamette Valley treetops. (Quite frankly, some might be mine.)
(BTW, the black bear in the lower right of the lead photo is only a metaphor. While the photo was taken on our host’s trail cam, it’s virtually certain he and his wife didn’t share any of the salmon with any local fauna other than each other.)
Speaking of connections: You’d better make yours if you want in on the year’s smash success of a banquet.
Organizers of Hatchery & Wild Co-exist’s fifth anniversary banquet will close reservations at 300 this Friday and only have a few slots remaining.
The event is Dec. 6 at the Ilani Casino in Ridgefield, Wash.
Buzz Ramsey and I will be among the guests participating in one of the largest organization fete gatherings I can recall.