Arkansas hunters post nine-year high in turkey harvest

LITTLE ROCK — Turkey hunters in The Natural State reported 11,332 turkeys harvested during Arkansas’s turkey hunting season, which ended Sunday. The harvest increased 22 percent from the 2024 season and stands as the best turkey season since 2016.

David Moscicki, AGFC Turkey Program coordinator, says the increase is likely the result of two factors:  good weather and more birds on the landscape from previous years.

“This is the fifth year in a row of increasing turkey harvest, so it wasn’t done overnight,” Moscicki said. “The vast majority of the birds hunters harvested this year hatched at least two years ago. Annual turkey harvest variability is highly linked to weather, both during the hunting season and during the brood-rearing season two years prior.”

Moscicki said Arkansas has had a good string of turkey hatches for the last four years, which has fed the steady increase in harvest.

“Two years ago was a good hatch, and fortunately, last year’s hatch was excellent in many areas of the state, according to brood survey data,” Moscicki said. “We hope to see the trend continue as there should be a good amount of carryover from those Jakes to adult gobblers for next spring.”

Fantastic weather throughout this year’s hunting season also played a key role in the excellent harvest.

“There were very few days of rain or cold in the season, which led to good activity from birds and increased participation from hunters,” Moscicki said. “We’ll be compiling all of the SpringTurkey Hunter Survey data and remote gobbling recorder data at the end of the month, but it won’t surprise me to see a good increase in hunter activity from last year. The automated recording devices should help us get a more complete picture of gobbling activity throughout the spring. We have data from one year, but gobbling can be very different from one year to the next based on weather conditions, so this year’s data will really help us stay on top of any trends in activity.”

Jake harvest remained extremely low, as has been the trend since the institution of the “no jakes” rule established in 2011.

Moscicki explained that in 2003, during Arkansas’s record harvest year, 4,610 of the 19,934 turkeys harvested were jakes.

“We went from 4,610 juvenile birds that year to 440 this year,” Moscicki said. “That was a lot of birds being knocked off the landscape before they were mature and provided good breeding opportunities. If you compare mature gobbler harvest between this year and the best Arkansas has ever had, the gap is not that great and we’re gaining ground with these good hatch years.”

Moscicki says keeping tabs on the hatch is critical to monitoring the good trend Arkansas turkeys have taken. Every hunter and wildlife enthusiast can help by participating in the AGFC’s Wild Turkey and Northern Bobwhite Population Survey as eggs begin to hatch and hens begin taking their poults to bugging grounds.

“Right now is the critical time for nest success,” Moscicki said. “And again, weather will play a big role. Hens can protect eggs from rain and cold, and they can even renest with limited success if a nest floods or is taken by predators early, but once poults hatch, there is a period when they can’t thermoregulate and are very vulnerable to cold, wet weather and there’s not much that we can do. Peak nest initiation hits in Arkansas around April 18, and it takes 28 days for eggs to hatch. That puts us right in the middle of that critical time for most nests in the state right now.”

Moscicki says some of the Delta likely will see some decreased nest success from floods that are still receding, but the rest of the state has seen some good weather so far.

“That batture land in the Mississippi River floodplain is very productive when it’s dry, but there was still water on a lot of that landscape last week, so getting reports from there and the rest of south Arkansas is critical in our brood surveys.”

Hunters and outdoors enthusiasts can sign up and report turkeys they see throughout early summer through the AGFC’s Wild Turkey and Northern Bobwhite Population Survey. Scan the QR code to get started.

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CUTLINES:

TURKEY HUNTER WITH BIRD
AGFC Biologist from Northeast Arkansas, Zack Yancey, with a good tom taken this season. Photo courtesy Zack Yancey.

TWO HUNTERS ON TAILGATE
AGFC Private Lands Biologist David Graves and Chad McFadden show off two public land gobblers taken on opening morning. Photo courtesy David Graves. 

ODD BIRD
Easton Begoon harvested this rare Erythristic turkey during the 2025 Special Youth Turkey Hunt. Photo courtesy Hunter Begoon.