May 15, 2008

The 2008 spring turkey season came to an end on Sunday, May 11, and the harvest was down for the second year in a row. This report comes from Douglas County Conservation Agent Mark Henry. There were 43,415 turkeys harvested statewide this year. This is down slightly from the 44,946 turkeys taken last year. There were 1,128 more adult gobblers taken this year but 2,550 fewer juvenile gobblers (jakes). Locally, the harvest did not change much from last year, Henry said. Douglas County harvested 558 turkeys which is up 27 birds from last year. Howell County harvested 592, Ozark County harvested 410, Texas County harvested 801, and Wright County had 537. The three high counties were Franklin with 838, Texas with 801 and Osage with 696. There were three reported hunting incidents this turkey season. Two of the incidents were shooter/victim and one was self-inflicted. All three were non-fatal.