While the turkey population increased slightly before the 2009 season in South Carolina, it looks like the run of positive news was very short-lived. In 2009, both the harvest and recruitment numbers were down. Coupled with an extended string of poor recruitment seasons, the harvest numbers were not only down in 2009, but the forecast for the 2010 harvest is not good.

Mike Cox, member of the NWTF's Lowcountry Longbeards chapter, was able to lure in and kill these two gobblers with the aid of his Pretty Boy decoys last spring. Photo by Terry Madewell.

If you thought last year tested your turkey hunting patience because of fewer gobblers in the woods, there's no relief in sight for 2010.

According to Charles Ruth, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) Deer and Turkey Project Supervisor, the downward trend in harvest and recruitment numbers continues.

"While we had hoped we'd see a good recovery in the turkey population in 2009, (but) that certainly did not turn out to be the case," Ruth said. "With yet another poor recruitment year in 2009, this marks six of the last seven years when the turkey reproduction figures have been poor. This also could have implications on the 2010 harvest, as the spring harvest following each year of low recruitment has been down."

Ruth said that during the 2009 spring season, 13,546 adult gobblers and 2,598 jakes were harvested for a statewide total of 16,234 turkeys.

"This figure represents a 9.4 percent decrease in harvest from the total of 2008 with 17,304 turkeys harvested," he said. "Also, it continues the trend of dropping harvest figures with a 36.3 percent decrease from the record harvest, which was established in 2002, of 25,487 turkeys. The reduction in harvest seen since 2002 can likely be attributable to one primary factor: poor reproduction."

Ruth said that the statewide harvest for turkeys is considered on a harvest per unit basis by his staff, with the number of turkeys taken per square mile being the standard used.

"When considering the estimated turkey habitat that is available in South Carolina, the turkey harvest rate in 2009 was 0.7 gobblers per square mile statewide," Ruth said.

However, the recruitment figures are disappointing too, he said. After increasing slightly in 2008, reproduction by wild turkeys decreased once again in 2009, according to the SCDNR's annual survey.

Ruth said the survey involves agency wildlife biologists, technicians and conservation officers, as well as many volunteers from other natural resource agencies and the general public.

"Although wild turkeys nest primarily in April and May in South Carolina, the survey does not take place until late summer," Ruth said. "Therefore, the survey statistics document poults that actually survived and entered the population going into the fall. Although average brood size was good this year, with hens averaging 3.7 poults, 54 percent of hens observed had no poults at all by late summer, leading to a total recruitment ratio of 1.8."

Recruitment ratio is a measure of young entering the population based on the number of hens in the population. Both of these statistics were lower than biologists would like to see and continue the recent trend in poor reproduction by turkeys in the state.

"At the regional level, it appears that reproduction improved somewhat in the Piedmont and mountains; however, the figures were not as encouraging in the Coastal Plain and midlands," Ruth said. "In the Southeast, Mother Nature often plays a big role in turkey populations with heavy rainfall coupled with cool temperatures during the spring nesting and brood-rearing season leading to poor reproductive success. There was much more widespread thunderstorm activity, which produced significant rainfall across the lower half of the state, which may have caused problems in that region. On the other hand, it was much drier in the Upstate, and reproduction tended to be a little better. In both cases, it makes sense."