Are Turkey Numbers Down?

The hubbub in the turkey hunting circle is trending. The turkey population is down. Seemingly more this year than in recent seasons, turkey hunters shared their struggles with setting their sights on a bird. As the story goes, those Wiley toms aren’t just more elusive. Instead, they’re fewer and farther in between. Subdued woods plagued turkey hunts. Even though hunters upgraded their turkey pot calls and fine-tuned their techniques, fewer wild gobbles responded. Alas, it’s difficult to call in ol’ big beard if he’s not in the vicinity.

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Whether you had a great turkey season or not, the social trend is real. Across the landscape, turkey hunters are reporting fewer birds. However, social trends don’t always equate with actual trends. The good news is many state wildlife agencies provide harvest summaries, allowing us to determine if the multitude of gobble-less stories are on to something. With 2021’s spring turkey season in the books, let’s look at the numbers and see where we stand.

Not all wildlife agencies provide punctual turkey harvest summaries. Thus, due to our proximity to spring’s season close, we’re limited to a small dataset. Fortunately, several state wildlife agencies, such as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, dish out harvest figures posthaste, providing us with a timely peek into season statistics. Other wildlife agencies, such as Missouri, Indiana, and Georgia, provide interactive harvest dashboards for near real-time analysis.

Ohio and Missouri’s 2021 spring turkey season continues an overall downward trend.

Starting with Ohio, their records indicate that hunters harvested 14,541 birds during the 2021 spring season. This figure is in stark contrast to Ohio’s 17,894 turkeys in 2020, an 18.7% decrease. Not to be outdone, Missouri’s 2021 turkey harvest plummeted to 34,593, down from 41,458 in 2020, an overall 16.6% decrease. To make matters worse, 2021’s numbers from both states represent their lowest harvest totals in over two decades. 2021 was Ohio’s lowest harvest since 1999. For these two turkey mecca states, the numbers aren’t promising.

Although down from 2020, Georgia and Indiana’s 2021 spring turkey harvests were on par with years prior.

Similarly, Georgia’s 2021 harvest numbers dropped to 12,145 from 14,412 the year prior. Following suit, Indiana’s 12,319 harvested birds are down 2,173 turkeys from their 2020 report. 15.7% and 15% decreases, respectively. On the other hand, unlike Ohio and Missouri, 2021 figures for Georgia and Indiana are on par with years before 2020. The average Georgia spring turkey harvest in the years 2016 through 2019 was 11,469 birds per year. Indiana averaged 12,116 during the same time frame. Meaning, Georgia and Indiana’s 2021 spring turkey season only seems worse because 2020 was so darned good.

Since the season only recently finished, we’ll have to wait and see how spring turkey seasons turned out across the nation. Regardless, the first batch of data shows that 2021 turkey harvest numbers are down. Of course, not every state wildlife agency report indicates a downward trend but a slightly down or average year. Regardless, the hubbub around the campfire is valid. Whether comparing this year to last year or looking at a more significant trend, 2021’s spring turkey season wasn’t one for the record books.

-Tyler Wolf, Fall Obsession Field Staff