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Spring turkey harvest sets record
MDC
5/16/03
Hunters also tied the record for the safest season.
JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's spring turkey harvest reached an all-time high this year, with hunters bringing 58,421 turkeys to check stations statewide.
The harvest total is 1,378 more than last year. It includes 3,660 turkeys killed during the two-day spring youth turkey hunting season and 54,761 killed during the 21-day regular spring turkey hunting season.
Texas County led county harvest totals with 1,280 birds checked. In second place was Laclede County, where hunters checked 1,138 turkeys, and Howell County came in third with 1,066.
Regional totals were: northwest, 8,063; northeast, 8,034; Ozark, 8,013; central, 7,973; southwest, 6,731; Kansas City, 6,623; southeast, 5,369; and St. Louis, 3,955.
This year's spring turkey hunting season tied the safety record set in 2000, when the Missouri Department of Conservation recorded four nonfatal, firearms-related turkey hunting accidents and no fatal ones.
Slightly less than one in four turkeys taken by hunters this year was a "jake," as year-old turkeys are called. This is slightly below average, indicating that turkey reproduction was below average in 2002.
Wildlife Research Biologist Jeff Beringer said Missouri's turkey reproduction also was below average in 2001. He said this could mean that hunters will face a tougher challenge next spring, but Missouri still is likely to have the best turkey hunting in the nation.
"Like any wild species, turkeys have good years and bad years," said Beringer. "Even though reproduction was off a little the last two years, it still was well within the variation that is to be expected from year to year. We may have fewer two-year-old gobblers for the next couple of years, but hunting will continue to be among the best in the nation."
Beringer said an off year for turkey hunting in Missouri is better than a good year in most states. Missouri's spring harvest has topped 50,000 every year since 1999. The average turkey harvest in the 43 other states that reported their harvest numbers to the National Wild Turkey Federation in 2002 was 12,760.
- Jim Low -
MDC
5/16/03
Hunters also tied the record for the safest season.
JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's spring turkey harvest reached an all-time high this year, with hunters bringing 58,421 turkeys to check stations statewide.
The harvest total is 1,378 more than last year. It includes 3,660 turkeys killed during the two-day spring youth turkey hunting season and 54,761 killed during the 21-day regular spring turkey hunting season.
Texas County led county harvest totals with 1,280 birds checked. In second place was Laclede County, where hunters checked 1,138 turkeys, and Howell County came in third with 1,066.
Regional totals were: northwest, 8,063; northeast, 8,034; Ozark, 8,013; central, 7,973; southwest, 6,731; Kansas City, 6,623; southeast, 5,369; and St. Louis, 3,955.
This year's spring turkey hunting season tied the safety record set in 2000, when the Missouri Department of Conservation recorded four nonfatal, firearms-related turkey hunting accidents and no fatal ones.
Slightly less than one in four turkeys taken by hunters this year was a "jake," as year-old turkeys are called. This is slightly below average, indicating that turkey reproduction was below average in 2002.
Wildlife Research Biologist Jeff Beringer said Missouri's turkey reproduction also was below average in 2001. He said this could mean that hunters will face a tougher challenge next spring, but Missouri still is likely to have the best turkey hunting in the nation.
"Like any wild species, turkeys have good years and bad years," said Beringer. "Even though reproduction was off a little the last two years, it still was well within the variation that is to be expected from year to year. We may have fewer two-year-old gobblers for the next couple of years, but hunting will continue to be among the best in the nation."
Beringer said an off year for turkey hunting in Missouri is better than a good year in most states. Missouri's spring harvest has topped 50,000 every year since 1999. The average turkey harvest in the 43 other states that reported their harvest numbers to the National Wild Turkey Federation in 2002 was 12,760.
- Jim Low -
