Photo by D. Toby Thompson

A lot of turkey hunters worried what the hurricanes of 2004 might do to the spring 2005 season. Brushes from three more storms in mid-September of last year raise the same question for spring 2006. Do they bode ill for hunting?

Relax and get ready for a good hunting season this spring! Larry Perrin, the turkey biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says our statewide gobbler population is alive and well.

"Overall, things seem to be doing pretty well with turkeys," Perrin assures. "Last year, we had some concerns about reproduction because of 2004's hurricanes. There wasn't too much direct impact on the turkeys, but the hurricanes could have influenced their nesting habitat. We heard mixed results, with some people saying, 'It was a good year,' and some saying, 'The hatch was down.' Overall, I'd say 2005 was at least an average year for nesting, and I think the picture is still pretty bright for us."

Perrin is relatively certain that there was little direct mortality of birds, based on turkeys in the Gainesville area, which he banded for a research project with the University of Florida.

"They came through pretty well," he notes. "Turkeys are hard to find if they are killed, so we never have any hard information on that. But it still doesn't seem like there was any direct mortality to any great extent. We were much more interested in effects on habitat and reproduction."

HOLMES COUNTY
One area that has concerned wildlife managers since the mid-1990s is Holmes County. During that decade, residents started telling the old Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission that turkeys had disappeared from the county. In 1997, the agency ran a survey of 29 bait sites in the county, during which they found no turkeys at all.

As a result, with the support of local hunters, the FWCC closed the 1998 season in Holmes County as part of an effort to restore turkeys to the area.

During the next two winters, biologists released a total of 121 turkeys at eight different release sites in the county.

"We do a survey every September," Perrin explains. "We have 28 bait sites that we run for 10 days each year, to get an idea of how those turkeys are doing and whether or not they're expanding throughout the county."

The project has been so successful that last year, biologists proposed reopening the turkey season in Holmes County.

"A three-day season will open up this spring, with a one-bird bag limit," says Perrins. "The season has been closed for only seven years, and that's phenomenal. The citizens of Holmes County really wanted this project to work, so they've been very protective of the turkeys and made sure there wasn't any poaching going on. They've also helped with the work of management. Most of the county is under private ownership, so most of the management has been done by the landowners."

In fact, surveys in the fall of 2005 looked so good that biologists feel that eventually, Holmes County can go back to a regular spring turkey season.

"I can't tell you how soon that will be," Perrin says. "We'll count again in September to see how things are going, and if they're looking pretty good we'll start heading in that direction."

THE EVERGLADES
Another ongoing project involves restoring a turkey population in the Everglades. In 1999, members of the Homestead Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation approached the FWCC and Everglades National Park about trying to reintroduce turkeys to the area. These birds would never be hunted, but simply be restored to the land where they originally lived.

At first, FWCC biologists were skeptical about the idea. Perrin admits that at the time, he could not imagine releasing turkeys in Everglades National Park.

"We went down and met to discuss the possibilities. We toured the area, and decided that while it's not ideal, it's certainly suitable," he recalls.

Starting in early 2000, biologists captured and released a number of birds into the park. There, however, things have not gone as well as they did in Holmes County.