I'm not familiar. Can you elaborate?
Chamberlain's Dominant Gobbler Theory (DGT) is basically that hens only want to breed with the dominant gobbler in an area and that by killing the dominant gobbler too early in the spring, it was possible to negatively affect reproduction and turkey numbers. Now given that Chamberlain was already a highly respected turkey researcher (one of the best), people started paying attention. For years, Chamberlain would talk about the DGT and how early turkey seasons could be the cause of declining populations. I mean, it does sound somewhat plausible if you don't have extensive knowledge of turkeys. However there has never been any hard peer-reviewed evidence. In hopes of fixing the turkey decline in certain areas, state agencies started pushing season backs. Substantially in some cases. And we know once you lose opportunity, a lot of times you don't get it back.
Arkansas - first pushed their season back over a decade ago. (Well before DGT become a thing.) Didn't make a difference. They finally tweak their season a bit to mirror Missouri's. Have a couple good hatches (at the same time their neighboring states did), and all of a sudden their season change worked! But everyone seemed to forget the season was pushed back like in 2012.
Alabama - Pushed statewide season back about a week. Pushed most public land seasons back upwards of 2 weeks. Hasn't made a difference. Just a major loss of hunting opportunity.
Georgia - (Chamberlain is a researcher at University of GA) - SUBSTANTIAL season delay, especially on public lands. Some public lands lost 2 weeks off the front of their season. Still hasn't saw a notable significant response.
South Carolina - (Chamberlain has several research sites here, so their DNR was all in with him) - Numerous season cuts over the past few years. Their coastal zone lost nearly 2 weeks of their season. No significant results.
Tennessee - Pushed their season back ~2 weeks while they are in the middle of a multi-million dollar study on the affects of season dates and turkey reproduction. And cuts bag limit. They had several counties with delayed openers for this study. Research wraps up and guess what! No difference with the 2 week season delay.
And the list could go on.
Meanwhile, Mississippi. Now one of the earliest openers in the country (March 15) with some of the most heavily hunted public lands in the country. If killing the dominant gobbler opener week was detrimental to populations, MS public land wouldn't have hardly any turkeys left. Also going by some of the other metrics Chamberlain will mention (i.e. needing a poult per hen ratio of 2.0 to maintain a population), Mississippi wouldn't have hardly any turkey left. Mississippi stuck to the science and didn't make season changes with the mounting pressure too. MS did delay the season to April 1 on five WMAs as part of a study. Mississippi has had some of its highest turkey populations in 20 years the past 3 years, with ZERO season changes. The experimental April 1 WMAs, no significant results from the season delay.
It just so happens, environmental conditions are one of the primary driving factors of turkey populations. This is why you will often see several states in a region have great/average/bad hatches at the same time. That is why MS, Alabama, LA, TN all saw high harvests in 2024. It was from the 2022 hatch. If we were killing them too early in MS, why did MS have just as good of a hatch as the other states? According to Chamberlain "Mississippi is an anomaly".Turkey populations are cyclical, we've known this all along. Chamberlain ran around shouting "THE SKY IS FALLING!" when in reality, its not.
There's several more fresh studies showing mounting evidence against DGT. And people are wanting their season's back! Arkansas's wildlife commission gave Arkansas a week back on the front of their season, starting this year.
I've noticed Chamberlain rarely mentions the DGT anymore. There is a reason for that. Not a good look when you've caused mass loss of opportunity based on your theory that didn't have substantial supporting evidence.
There's your long answer. haha
