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Turkey hunters reported 11,332 turkeys killed during Arkansas's turkey hunting season, which ended May 11. The harvest increased 22 percent from the 2024 season and stands as the best turkey season since 2016.
David Moscicki, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission turkey program coordinator, said the increase is likely the result of good weather and more birds on the landscape from previous years.
"This is the fifth year in a row of increasing turkey harvest, so it wasn't done overnight," Moscicki said. "The vast majority of the birds harvested this year hatched at least two years ago. Annual turkey harvest variability is highly linked to weather, both during the hunting season and during the brood-rearing season two years prior."
Moscicki said Arkansas has had a good string of turkey hatches for the last four years, which has fed the steady increase.
"Two years ago was a good hatch, and fortunately, last year's hatch was excellent in many areas of the state, according to brood survey data," Moscicki said. "We hope to see the trend continue as there should be a good amount of carryover from those jakes (young turkeys) to adult gobblers for next spring."
Fantastic weather throughout this year's hunting season also played a key role.
"There were very few days of rain or cold in the season, which led to good activity from birds and increased participation from hunters," Moscicki said. "We'll be compiling all of the spring turkey hunter survey data and remote gobbling recorder data at the end of the month. It won't surprise me to see a good increase in hunter activity from last year. The automated recording devices should help us get a more complete picture of gobbling activity throughout the spring. We have data from one year, but gobbling can be very different from one year to the next based on weather conditions, so this year's data will really help us stay on top of any trends in activity."
Moscicki said keeping tabs on the hatch is critical to monitoring the good trend Arkansas turkeys have taken. Every hunter and wildlife enthusiast can help by participating in the Game and Fish Wild Turkey and Northern Bobwhite Population Survey as eggs begin to hatch and hens begin taking their poults to insect grounds.
"Right now is the critical time for nest success," Moscicki said. "And again, weather will play a big role. Hens can protect eggs from rain and cold, and they can even renest with limited success if a nest floods or is taken by predators early, but once poults hatch, there is a period when they can't thermoregulate and are very vulnerable to cold, wet weather and there's not much we can do. Peak nest initiation hits in Arkansas around April 18, and it takes 28 days for eggs to hatch. That puts us right in the middle of that critical time for most nests in the state right now."