Wild turkey hatch up for third year in a row

COLUMBUS — Ohio’s wild turkey poult index, a metric used to estimate nest success for the popular gamebird, was above average for the third year in a row, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. The 2023 Ohio index was 2.8 poults per hen, above the 10-year average of 2.7 poults per hen.

The Division of Wildlife relies on public reports of wild turkeys and their young, called poults, in July and August each year to estimate nest success. The annual poult index can serve as an indicator of wild turkey population trends and inform harvest regulations in future years. Turkey brood success is largely influenced by weather conditions, habitat and predation.

Wild turkey brood surveys in 2021 and 2022 showed above-average nest productivity that benefitted turkey populations after several years of below-average results. The statewide average poults per hen in 2022 was 3, and 3.1 in 2021.

This year, turkey poult production varied slightly by region. In northeast and northwest Ohio, the index was 3 poults per hen. It was 2.8 in southeast Ohio, and 2.4 poults per hen in central and southwest Ohio. Because of habitat availability, Ohio’s turkey populations are typically strongest in the eastern and southern counties.

The restoration of the wild turkey in Ohio is among the state’s most notable wildlife success stories. Wild turkeys were extirpated around 1904, and the Division of Wildlife began reintroducing wild turkeys to Ohio in the 1950s. For the next five decades, the wild turkey population grew and expanded rapidly, facilitated by trap-and-transfer efforts. By 1999, wild turkeys were found in all 88 counties.

Ohio’s first modern-day wild turkey hunting season opened in 1966 in nine counties, and hunters checked 12 birds. The total number of harvested turkeys topped 1,000 for the first time in 1984. Turkey hunting was opened statewide in 2000. The highest Ohio wild turkey harvest was in 2001, when hunters checked 26,156 birds.