Turkey hunting season kicks off in TN despite decline
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Turkey hunting season kicks off Saturday in Tennessee, but hunters in some areas may notice there may not be much to shoot at due to a decline in turkeys in our area.
Some may notice it might be more difficult to bag a turkey. Lee Leis with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) in Tennessee said Middle Tennessee has seen a decline of turkey population in certain areas. The Tennessee Wildlife and Resource Agency (TWRA) also told News 2 Wayne, Lawrence, Lincoln, and Giles counties have received low reports from hunters.
“There’s multiple reasons for that. One of them is nest predation, predator control, and the state loss of habitat loss, forest thinning, that kind of thing. So it’s getting harder and harder with loss of timber and forest land and open areas where the hens like the nest to raise their young,” said Leis.
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Another factor at play is the number of hunters has increased, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It had a huge impact on the population in ’20 and ’21, even into ’22 because people weren’t working, so they have plenty of time to go out and turkey hunt and there was a lot of birds harvested in those two years’ timeframe, and that was a slight setback somewhat,” said Leis.
To help figure out why this is happening, the NWTF has funded research studies with the University of Tennessee and the TWRA that help tag and transmit the birds to see where they move during the season. The goal is to figure out what’s causing decline in some places and not in others.
“Studies take three to five years to be able to gather any usable data, good science-based data, and it’s been difficult in some places to do that, but the goal is to make sure we have a stable population within the state,” said Leis.
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There are ways hunters can also help this season, including reporting what you’re seeing like hens with young ones.
“The numbers have dropped. Typically, a hand will have eight to 10 to 12 poults hatch….a lot of the studies have said we’re down to less than one poult survival per hen, which really has a hard time on the numbers overall,” said Leis.
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