COLUMBUS, OH - Hunters checked in 16,118 wild turkeys during Ohio's four-week, statewide spring turkey hunting season that opened April 26 and ended May 23, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
For the fifth straight year, Ashtabula County led the state with the most turkeys killed with 648. Ashtabula was followed by the following counties: Coshocton (540), Harrison (529), Guernsey (497), Knox (445), Jefferson (441), Belmont (439), Columbiana (427), Trumbull (411), Monroe (407).
Last year's preliminary number of gobblers was 20,031. "After three years of poor reproduction, we have fewer turkeys in many parts of the state, though western Ohio populations continue to grow," said Steven A. Gray, chief of the Division of Wildlife. "Hopefully, with good reproduction this year the population will rebound." In addition to the turkeys taken during regular turkey season, young hunters killed another 1,519 birds during a special youth-only turkey hunt April 24 and 25. The hunt was open to hunters age 17 and younger on public and private lands statewide
"We were really thrilled with the number of turkeys taken by young hunters," Gray said.
Coming in to the spring season, state wildlife biologists estimated the wild turkey population in Ohio to be more than 200,000 birds. This was the fifth year that turkey hunting was open in every Ohio county during the spring season. Only 57 of the state's 88 counties were open to spring turkey hunting in 1999.
Wild turkeys were nearly extinct in Ohio before being reintroduced in the mid-1950s by the Division of Wildlife. The first spring turkey hunting season opened in 1966. Ohio now has wild turkeys present in all 88 counties.