Ohio’s
fall wild turkey hunters’ rather
mediocre
2019
season
was perhaps less a reflection of any
possible declining
bird numbers as perhaps a continuation of a falling number of
participants.
For
the 2019 Ohio fall wild turkey hunting season – which ran October
12 through December 1 - hunters in
Ohio killed
1,054 birds. In
2018 that figure stood at 1,131 birds.
And
the 2019 kill-harvest was also below the five-year mean of 1,388
birds, and less than one-half the 2016 kill-harvest of 2,168 turkeys
of both sexes, said Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife
biologist who oversees the management of the species on a day-to-day
basis.
To
some degree, reproductive success in the months prior to the fall
season seems to influence fall harvest totals, Wiley
said.
“We
typically see spikes in the fall harvest in years with very high
reproductive indices of
poults
per hen. As an example, the 2016 reproductive index was well above
average, as was the fall harvest that year,” Wiley
said.
Unfortunately,
Wiley
says, Ohio’s
“reproductive indices in 2017, 2018, and 2019 have all been below
average, as were their
respective
fall harvest totals in those years.”
Wiley
says
as well that Ohio’s
fall turkey harvest total is not a reliable indicator of turkey
population status or trend. Variables such as hunter effort likely
influence the fall harvest total as much or more than turkey
abundance, Wiley
said.
“Unlike
the spring season when hunters are afield solely in pursuit of
turkey, many seem to hunt turkey opportunistically in the fall.”
Wiley
said.
Citing
as an example, Wiley said an
avid deer archer might not pursue a
turkey
specifically in
the fall,
but might be prepared to take a bird
if it wanders within range during a deer hunt.
“This
is a plausible explanation for why 40- to
50-percent
of turkeys harvested in the fall are taken by archery methods,
compared to just two-
to three-percent
in the spring,” Wiley
said.
Another
possible – even, likely - wrinkle regarding the on-going slide in
the kill-harvest during Ohio’s fall wild turkey-hunting season is
the
topic of hunter effort, Wiley
says also.
“It
is worth noting that the total number of fall turkey permits issued
in Ohio has declined consistently for more than five
years. The
Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued
9,441 fall permits in 2019, which
was a
four-percent
decline from the
9,825
permits
issued in 2018, and
also
below
the 5-year average of
10,792,
permits,”
Wiley
said.
Annually,
between 2015 and 2017 the Wildlife Division issued
more than 11,500 fall permits for
each season, Wiley said as
well.
Here
are the county-by-county numbers
for
Ohio’s 2019 fall wild turkey-hunting season with their respective
2018 figures in parentheses: Adams:
11 (11); Allen: 10 (8); Ashland: 15 (14); Ashtabula: 27 (39); Athens:
9 (20); Belmont: 19 (29); Brown: 11 (11); Butler: 16 (7); Carroll: 31
(22); Champaign: 7 (2); Clermont: 35 (13); Columbiana: 42 (17);
Coshocton: 44 (52); Crawford: 7 (2); Cuyahoga: 0 (6); Defiance: 15
(14); Delaware: 11 (9); Erie: 8 (6); Fairfield: 7 (12); Franklin: 1
(4); Fulton: 10 (10); Gallia: 17 (32); Geauga: 24 (34); Guernsey: 31
(42); Hamilton: 9 (11); Hancock: 6 (4); Hardin: 7 (2); Harrison: 16
(35); Henry: 2 (3); Highland: 24 (26); Hocking: 15 (20); Holmes: 24
(32); Huron: 9 (12); Jackson: 14 (21); Jefferson: 24 (8); Knox: 26
(18); Lake: 7 (9); Lawrence: 6 (19); Licking: 22 (25); Logan: 7 (11);
Lorain: 13 (5); Lucas: 11 (12); Mahoning: 17 (11); Medina: 13 (13);
Meigs: 20 (19); Monroe: 15 (29); Morgan: 18 (28); Morrow: 9 (6);
Muskingum: 16 (25); Noble: 22 (30); Paulding: 8 (3); Perry: 16 (18);
Pike: 6 (18); Portage: 12 (18); Preble: 6 (9); Putnam: 3 (5);
Richland: 21 (19); Ross: 17 (17); Scioto: 18 (25); Seneca: 8 (2);
Stark: 19 (16); Summit: 13 (9); Trumbull: 26 (21); Tuscarawas: 40
(40); Vinton: 13 (11); Warren: 5 (4); Washington: 14 (19); Wayne: 6
(9); Williams: 21 (14); Wyandot: 2 (4). Total:
1,054 (1,131).
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFRischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment