WHAT ABOUT HURRICANES?
With last year's extremely active hurricane season, a natural question that comes to mind is if or how that weather affected gobblers statewide. Perrin said those storms have an effect on the turkey population.

"The impacts will be mostly local, and probably relatively short term," he offered. "In places where there was downed timber, it's important to get that cleaned up as fast as possible. That can create a fire hazard, and it can interfere with future management if you can't get in there and do a prescribed burn because you're worried about the fuel load. So it's important that landowners get the debris cleaned up so they can get back on their regular management schedule and keep the vegetation relatively open for the turkeys."

He went on to say that it is very hard for biologists to document what kind of direct mortality hurricanes cause for turkeys.

"We have a research project going on with the University of Florida, and they have radio-tagged birds at Caravelle Ranch, south of Palatka, and on the Ordway Preserve, close to Melrose," Perrin noted. "None of those birds were impacted by Charley."

One mystery is where the birds go during a storm of the magnitude of a hurricane, but since it's not safe for researchers to track the birds in that kind of weather, it's a question that will likely remain unanswered for the foreseeable future.

However, the impact of storms such as hurricanes on turkeys during the late summer is probably pretty minimal.

"The poults that hatched during the spring and early summer are pretty good-sized birds, and they can tolerate quite a bit," Perrin said. "However, if an area gets flooded, the birds are going to move to adjacent uplands, so there will be some dispersal and they may end up in places that aren't the best for them. They're impacted by storms, without a doubt, but they're also tough, resilient birds, and hurricanes have always been a part of the climate and ecology of Florida, so they can handle it."

SEASON DATES
As it always does, spring turkey season this year starts earlier in the South Zone than it does in the Central and Northwest zones, and of course it varies somewhat on some of the individual wildlife management areas (WMAs). In the South, the season runs from March 5 through April 10; farther north it runs March 19 through April 24.

"The earlier dates in the South Management Zone have to do with the onset of gobbling," Perrin said. "While we haven't done a specific study to identify the date when gobbling starts, it's pretty well documented that it starts earlier in the southern part of the state. We have a long spring season, and we wanted to be sure the season overlaps the peak gobbling period."

Of course, he says, gobbling behavior is quite variable and is affected by sunlight, weather and other factors. But by having an earlier season in the south, the FWCC hopes to provide hunters with a quality hunting experience statewide.