Turkey Season Summary - Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

2 0 0 6 - 0 7 T U R K E Y S U R V E Y S U M M A R I E S2007Spring gobbling surveyStudies indicate that gobbling is uniform throughout the state. Photo courtesyof the NWTF.The AGFC received many complaints in2006 about turkeys being “gobbled out”before the conservative opening day of April 8.However, surveys done in the late 1980s andearly 1990s indicated two peaks of gobblingactivity in northern Arkansas – April 1 andApril 15. Various Mississippi Department ofWildlife, Fisheries and Parks turkey reports alsoindicated that hunters hear most gobbling fromthe last week in March through the third weekin April. The AGFC Wild Turkey Team decidedto perform a new statewide gobbling survey todetermine if timing of peak gobbling in Arkansashad changed in the last decade.MethodsGobble counts were run on 19 areas acrossArkansas in spring 2007 (Figure 1). The surveywill continue for three years to get a clear pictureof gobbling activity. Large areas of turkey habitatthat aren’t hunted are rare in Arkansas. Five areas– Wedington WMA and Cherokee Village in theOzarks, Fort Chaffee ranges and Hot SpringsVillage in the Ouachitas, and Village Creek StatePark in the Delta were identified. Because thesetypes of areas are so rare, other areas were chosenand identified according to hunting pressure.Lightly hunted areas included the Blass ScoutReservation near Damascus and Holla BendNWR in the Ozarks, U of A Pine Tree WDA,Big Lake WMA and Choctaw Island WMA inthe Delta, and Dr. Lester Sitzes III Bois D’ArcWMA and Rick Evans Grandview PrairieWMA in the Gulf Coastal Plain. Moderatelyhunted areas included Camp Robinson WMAin the Ouachitas and Felsenthal NWR in the1 4 2 0 0 6 - 0 7 T U R K E Y S E A S O N S U M M A R Y