Wild turkey hunting is becoming more popular than ever. It is estimated there are now 75,000 turkey hunters in the state, whereas in 2001, there were 50,000. They harvested a total of 10,082 turkeys in 2007, a decrease of 14 percent from the 2006 harvest of 11,706. With turkeys becoming increasingly available to hunters statewide, there appear to have been some shifts in harvest trends. While the actual reasons for these harvest shifts are supposition at this point, analysis of the North Carolina Wildlife Commission’s turkey harvest data show a shift in harvest away from the more traditional hunting areas.

While a 14 percent drop in harvest may at first raise eyebrows, it was nevertheless the second-highest wild turkey harvest in state history. The Youth Turkey Day hunt for 2007 had a reported harvest of 333 turkeys. The total turkey harvest taken from game lands was 778 and the total turkey harvest from private lands was 9,304.

Total harvest in 2003 was 9,862, which was an increase of 4 percent from 2002. The harvest in 2004 was 8,846, a decrease of 10 percent from 2003. In 2005, the harvest was 9,824, which was up 11 percent from the previous year. In 2006, the harvest was 11,706, up a whopping 19 percent from 2005. In 2007, the harvest was 10,082, which was down 14 percent from the year before but still the second highest level ever.

There appears to be a cantilever effect going on with the harvest numbers and it is likely to be largely based on weather conditions during the spring and summer nesting and brood-rearing seasons. The record 2006 harvest was probably the result of superior recruitment identified in the summer brood survey in 2004 and Mike Seamster had actually predicted the record harvest could happen. The large number of poults hatched and reared in 2004 became the 2-year-old gobblers in 2006 and 2-year-old gobblers make up the majority of the hunter harvest.

The fact that the 2007 turkey harvest was the second highest ever reported in North Carolina is therefore almost a phenomenon that begs for an explanation because of poor recruitment in 2005. But there may be no explanation, except in hindsight as more years of harvest and population trends are established in the future. The second-place harvest follows three out of the last four years as being the poorest reproductive years for turkeys that have ever been recorded. Low recruitment rates for birds that have hatched and grown to adulthood were blamed for 2007’s reduced harvest compared with the year before.

Overall productivity of turkeys is determined by the ratio of poults (juvenile turkeys) per hen during the July and August survey period. A ratio of 3.0 poults is considered good productivity.

Backtracking through the state’s recent years of poor turkey reproduction, it is clear that 2006 was the third poorest recruitment year ever recorded, with 2.0 poults observed per hen as a statewide average. That could mean a lack of 2-year-old birds in the flock during 2008 and bode badly for hunter success. The male poults hatched and surviving from the brood in 2006 would have been jakes during the 2007 season.

However, 2005 was the second poorest recruitment year, with 1.7 poults per hen. The male poults would have been 2-year-old gobblers in 2007, yet the harvest was still relatively high.