Local hunters are getting an early start today as Indiana’s spring turkey hunting begins. The 45th annual season lasts from April 23 to May 11.
Hunters can kill one male or bearded turkey during the spring season. Hoosier hunters harvested over 11,000 birds in 89 of Indiana’s 92 counties in 2013. Indiana instituted turkey hunting in 1970. In 2010, a record 13,742 birds were taken.
In recent seasons, DNR wildlife research biologist Steve Backs said harvest numbers are trending slightly downward because the turkey population in Indiana and the entire eastern United States is stabilizing. Turkey populations have grown steadily over the last 50 years after states reintroduced the birds to areas where they had been eliminated by loss of habitat and unregulated subsistence hunting.
“We’re still going to have a good turkey season, but after a few decades of ever increasing harvests, our turkey population growth is stabilizing with a lower level of annual production, something seen in many other states” Backs said.
Wild turkeys were eliminated from Indiana by the early 1900s. A reintroduction program from 1956 to 2004 released almost 3,000 wild-trapped birds throughout the state.
Now natural disease and predators are catching up with those restored turkey populations, Backs said. Turkey eggs and poults are vulnerable to predators that range from blue jays to coyotes.
“Predators eventually learn there’s something new on the menu,” Backs said.
Weather could also play a role in harvest numbers. The especially frigid winter may have killed more turkeys than normal. And the slow start to spring will mean there is less vegetation in the woods than normal, making it easier for turkeys to see an approaching hunter.
“Hunters are going to hear turkeys from a longer distance,” Backs said. “But turkeys are going to see hunters coming from a longer distance also.”
Roughly 60,000 hunters pursue turkeys in Indiana.
