May 22, 2006

Columbus, Ohio - Hunters checked 18,262 wild turkeys during Ohio’s four-week, statewide spring turkey-hunting season that opened April 24 and ended May 21, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.

The preliminary total represents nearly a 4 percent increase over last year’s preliminary number of 17,542.

Ashtabula County led the state in the number of turkeys killed with 782. Counties with additional high harvest numbers were: Guernsey - 661; Harrison - 625; Meigs - 612; Tuscarawas - 570; Athens - 566; Coshocton - 551; Washington - 517; and Jackson - 493.

In addition to the turkeys taken during the regular season, young hunters harvested another 1,872 birds during a special hunt for hunters age 17 and younger held April 22-23.

The ODNR Division of Wildlife estimates that more than 90,000 people hunted turkeys during the four-week season. Prior to the start of the spring hunting season, state wildlife biologists estimated the wild turkey population in Ohio to be more than 180,000 birds.

This was the seventh spring that turkey hunting was open in every Ohio county. Only 57 of the state’s 88 counties were open to spring turkey hunting in 1999.

Wild turkeys were nearly extinct in Ohio before being reintroduced in the mid-1950s by the Division of Wildlife. The first spring turkey-hunting season opened in 1966. Wild turkeys are now present in all 88 counties.