Turkey Season Summary - Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

2 0 0 6 - 0 7 T U R K E Y S U R V E Y S U M M A R I E SBrood counts increasedslightly in 2006 with1.81 poults seen foreach turkey hen. Photocourtesy of the NWTF.Brood production in the OuachitasA C a s e H i s t o r yIn the 1970s, the Ouachita Mountains inwest-central Arkansas had one of the best turkeypopulations in the nation. However, severedrought in 1980 led to a decline in turkeynumbers in the Ouachitas for several years.Populations did recover and checked harvestin 1987 was about the same as it had been inthe late 1970s. Then the bottom fell out – sixconsecutive years of poor hatches occurred in theOuachitas from 1988 to 1993. Turkey harvestplummeted, and hunters began to worry aboutthe future of this once-fertile flock.A turkey research projectwas initiated in 1993 toexamine the reasons for poorbrood production in theOuachitas. During the firstyear of the study, 40 radioequippedhen turkeys bredand laid eggs. None of thenesting attempts resulted inany poults hatching. Theprimary cause of nest failurein the study was from nestpredators such as raccoons.5,0004,0003,0002,0001,0000198219841986Fur prices declined dramatically in the late 1980sand furbearer numbers had spiked upward froma lack of trapping and hunting pressure.Cycles in animal populations are common,and a distemper outbreak soon brought raccoonnumbers down dramatically. By 1995 almost 40percent of radio-equipped hens hatched broods.This trend continued for several years untilresearch ended in 1997. Even with successfulnesting, six years of poor reproduction had takena toll. Spring turkey harvests did not recover to1987 levels for 12 years (Figure 3).Figure 3. Spring harvest and brood counts in the Ouachitas,1982-2006.PoultsSpring Harvest1988199019922 0 0 6 - 0 7 T U R K E Y S E A S O N S U M M A R Y 1 31994199619982000200220042006