Ohio’s fall wild turkey hunters scored gains – and
encountered deficits – largely based upon which county encountered an abundant
emergence of 17-year cyclic cicadas.
In all, Ohio’s fall wild turkey hunters killed 2,168 birds.
This figure is substantially greater than was the number for the 2015 fall wild
turkey-hunting season: 1,535 birds.
Where the cicadas popped out of the ground in large numbers
that led to fat and healthy poults and even adults, the fall turkey hunting
season was exceptional. Where the emergence fizzled so did hunter success.
An example of the former case happening would include
Coshocton County. Here, the 2016 Ohio fall turkey-hunting season saw a kill of
94 birds. In 2015 that figure was 43 birds.
The reverse was seen in such traditional fall turkey season
leaders such as Ashtabula County where 66 birds were killed this year compared
to 77 birds killed during the 2015 fall season.
Yet a decline here or there is relatively meaningless given
the general opportunistic nature of many fall wild turkey hunters, says Mark
Wiley, a wildlife research biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
To add meat to that argument, Wiley notes that for this fall
season 37 percent of the turkeys were taken by archery tackle. That compared to
just 2.4 percent during this past spring season, Wiley says.
“That suggests to me that far more likely it is that archery
hunters are killing a bird while they’re deer hunting rather than seeking a
turkey deliberately,” Wiley said. “So a fluctuation here or there really won’t
be reflected (in a county’s) turkey population.”
An interesting point that caught biologists a little by
surprise, says Wiley though, is that the make-up of the kill did not change
much even though many counties encountered significant turkey population
increases: again thanks to the massive emergence of high protein cicadas that
were feasted upon by young and old birds alike.
Wiley said that for the 2015 fall wild turkey-hunting season
some 45 percent of the birds taken were adult females. That is also the same
number for this fall season, says Wiley.
And for this year’s crop of juvenile female turkeys the
harvest make-up consisted of 18 percent; or only three percentage points more
than during the 2015 fall season, Wiley says.
Parallel to near mirror comparisons are seen for the adult
and juvenile male turkey kills, too. The 2015 fall season saw 28 percent of the
harvest consisting of adult gobblers while for this year that figure was 25
percent.
And for jakes – male turkeys born this year – the figures
for the 2015 and 2016 fall seasons were identical: 12 percent, Wiley says.
“Essentially while all of the categories saw identical or
near identical percentages their respective overall numbers increased, largely
as a result of more turkeys on the landscape,” Wiley says. “I would have
thought more female and male juveniles as percentages would have been harvested
but that wasn’t the case. This may have been a matter of hunters being more
selective in choosing larger birds.”
One other item of some noteworthiness, says Wiley, is that
the number of fall turkey licenses being issued has been slipping the past
several years. In 2015 the Wildlife Division had issued 11,689 fall season wild
turkey-hunting permits. For this just concluded season that number had fallen
to 11,506 tags.
On the bright side, though, it did mean that the hunter
success rate for the fall season increased for 2016; once more thanks to an
abundant emergence of the Brood V 17-year cicada – an event that won’t repeat
itself until the year 2033.
Note: A list of all wild turkeys
checked during the 2016 fall hunting season is shown below. The first number
following the county’s name shows the harvest numbers for 2016, and their
respective 2015 numbers are in parentheses: Adams: 30 (44); Ashland: 25 (27); Ashtabula: 66
(73); Athens: 63 (31); Belmont: 47 (33); Brown: 20 (26); Butler: 13 (13);
Carroll: 30 (21); Clermont: 28 (43); Columbiana: 31 (43); Coshocton: 94 (43);
Cuyahoga: 9 (2); Defiance: 26 (18); Delaware: 10 (9); Fairfield: 24 (14);
Franklin: 2 (1); Gallia: 57 (50); Geauga: 32 (45); Guernsey: 79 (35); Hamilton:
11 (10); Harrison: 68 (32); Highland: 34 (40); Hocking: 57 (52); Holmes: 74
(27); Huron: 13 (6); Jackson: 50 (43); Jefferson: 39 (30); Knox: 43 (34); Lake:
12 (11); Lawrence: 32 (31); Licking: 54 (36); Lorain: 19 (29); Mahoning: 27
(23); Medina: 28 (22); Meigs: 79 (33); Monroe: 86 (21); Morgan: 52 (13);
Morrow: 8 (17); Muskingum: 64 (27); Noble: 74 (35); Perry: 62 (29); Pike: 39
(35); Portage: 31 (38); Richland: 31 (21); Ross: 25 (24); Scioto: 23 (27);
Seneca: 11 (6); Stark: 41 (27); Summit: 16 (12); Trumbull: 42 (50); Tuscarawas:
92 (23); Vinton: 47 (35); Warren: 9 (9); Washington: 54 (23); Wayne: 10 (13);
Williams: 25 (20); Total: 2,168 (1,535).
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