GONE GOBBLER

still dark in Putnam County, not far from the Iowa border. Alisha Mosloff and Reina Tyl have walked a half-mile through calf-deep snow to sit inside a blind and wait. Mosloff, a doctoral student, and Tyl, a scientist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, don’t speak. They bring nothing to eat or drink. It’s just them and a “buddy heater,” a non-negotiable on that 6-degree February morning. The dawn light reveals the soybean field ahead. They watch it with binoculars. They’re are skittish birds with keen eyesight and an ability to instantly burst into flight. They’re important to the state’s ecosystem and its identity. Missouri consistently has one of the biggest turkey harvests in the country. Lately, however, turkey numbers have been dropping. Tyl and her colleagues want to find out why. First, they have to catch some.